Residents of Ekiti State are beginning to file out in trickles to exercise their franchise as voting has commenced in many parts of the state in the governorship poll.

The people of state are set to elect a brand new governor today that will succeed the incumbent, Dr Kayode Fayemi, and pilot the affairs of the state for the next four years.

The election will be conducted across 2,445 polling units in the 16 local government areas in the state.

Sixteen candidates are participating in the poll, which will be decided by 988,923 registered voters, out of which 51 per cent are women and 38.56 per cent youths (18-34).

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said only 749,065 voters collected their permanent voters cards for the election. However, a total of 403,451 votes were cast in the 2018 election, won by Fayemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who recorded 197,462 votes against his main challenger, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) Kolapo Olushola, who had 177,927 votes. Thirty-three other candidates had 9,205 votes, while 18,857 votes were declared invalid.

On Saturday morning, the request for help by an elderly, visually impaired electorate, who could not identify the logo of her preferred party led to a shouting march among agents of political parties participating in the governorship poll at Fajuyi House, Polling 007, Ado Ekiti.

The voter had told the INEC’s ad-hoc electoral officer at the polling unit that she could not see the logo of the party she wanted to vote for.

Even though all the party agents present agreed the woman should be assisted, the choice of who would assist her almost led to a brawl among them, as they rejected those that volunteered to assist the voter.

While the matter was being resolved, voting was temporarily put on hold.

Son to the voter, simply identified as Yemi later showed up and was allowed to assist her to cast her vote.

A report by Punch stated that at a newly created polling unit, Unit 45, Ward 9, Ado Ekiti, INEC Adhoc officer on duty, who refused to disclose his name, said only four voters were on the list.

He said one voter had cast his vote, while the other three were being expected.

But at the next polling unit to it, Polling Unit 44, Ward 9, there were several people in the queue waiting to cast their vote.

One of the voters, simply identified as Olatunde, in a chat with our correspondent said “many people were unaware of the existence of the newly created polling Unit 45.

“Whenever the opportunity to transfer registration is created for us by INEC, I will prefer to move my registration to the new polling unit.”

The 2022 election is expected to be a tight race between the candidates of the ruling APC, Abiodun Oyebanji and a former governor of the state, Segun Oni, an engineer, who is the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The candidate of the PDP, Bisi Kolawole, is also expected to mount a challenge for the coveted position.

Oyebanji, who is backed by the incumbent governor, resigned as secretary to the state government to contest the poll.

The Ikogosi Ekiti-born technocrat served as the secretary of the group that lobbied the late General Sani Abacha for the creation of Ekiti State in 1996.

He also served as special assistant on legislative matters to the first civilian governor of the state, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, before ending up as his chief of staff.

During Fayemi’s first term, he served as commissioner for integration before he was deployed to the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.

Oni of the SDP will be going to the poll with the integrity of the profile he demonstrated when he was the governor of the state. However, he is not expected to have enough financial backing to challenge the two main parties – APC and PDP – in an election that analysts said might be decided by what locals call ‘Dibo sibe ko sebe’ (a form of vote-buying slogan).

Meanwhile, Oni has accused security operatives of arresting his supporters to demoralise them ahead of the election.

He specifically warned the chief security officer to Governor Fayemi not to allow himself to be used to set the state on fire.

Oni, who spoke at the party’s secretariat in Ado-Ekiti, said his supporters were arrested and detained by the chief security officer to the governor.

However, Mr Yinka Oyebode, the chief press secretary to Fayemi, dismissed the claim, describing it as ‘a lie from the pit of hell.’ He argued that the chief security officer had no influence over the security architecture for the election, which he noted was even beyond the commissioner of police in the state.

He claimed that security operatives were picking up any identified threat irrespective of political parties or affiliations.

The Nigeria Police Force says it will deal with any electoral offenders during the conduct of the governorship election holding today (Saturday).

Deputy Inspector General of Police, Babatunde Kokumo, in charge of the Ekiti election, said this when he visited the Ekiti Resident Electoral Commissioner, Rec, Dr Adeniran Rahmon.

Kokumo said the Force had imposed restriction of movement in and out of the state from the hours of 11:59am on Friday, adding that a strong security arrangement had been put in place to ensure a transparent poll in the state.

Already, the police had embarked on an aerial patrol of Ado Ekiti, the state capital, as part of its confidence building measures.