Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, has urged the residents of the state to accept the outcome of the ongoing local government election in good faith.
Mr Makinde stated this on Saturday shortly after voting at exactly 10.21 a.m. at Polling Unit 1, Ward 11, Abayomi area of Ibadan North-East Local Government.
He advised the residents to approach the appropriate authorities with any complaints arising from the exercise, promising they would be dealt with.
He said reports reaching him, however, showed that the exercise was hitch-free, saying that grass-roots democracy had come to stay in Oyo State.
According to him, the people are going about the exercise peacefully while traffic restrictions are being obeyed by the people.
“I commend our people for coming out to exercise their civic responsibility. Before we came in, it had always been caretakers’ administration at the grass-roots level without the people, really, having a say in government. But we are holding local government election for the second time in almost our fifth year in office,” he said.
He expressed optimism that the exercise would be successful at the end of the day.
However, in Oluyole Local Government Area, Peoples Democratic Party chairmanship candidate, Hakeem Olatunji, was seen still campaigning without restriction.
Queried by journalists, Mr Olatunji said he was not campaigning but rather going from house to house, urging people to come out and vote for their preferred candidates due to the low turnout of voters.
(NAN)