Okota violence on Feb. 23 upset me — Tinubu

The All Progressive Congress (APC) National Leader, Bola Tinubu, has said that the violence that erupted during the Feb. 23 Presidential and National Assembly elections upset him.

Tinubu made the assertion during an interactive session with the media after he cast his vote at his polling unit Ward 3, Unit 047, Ikeja Lagos.

The APC chieftain, who came to the polling station around 12 noon, accompanied by some aides proceeded to cast his vote by 12:15 p.m.

Tinubu said that against the backdrop of painting the election as violent, it should rather be classified as peaceful, adding that the overall conduct of the election was fair.

“I take exception to what happened in Okota two weeks ago. I am very upset about that incidence placing Lagos as if we are violence-prone.

“We have about 1,325 polling units in Lagos State and only five units were affected in Okota. That should not mean that the election was a failure in the state.

“If we should rate it, the election should be about 97 per cent rate of success if right mentally. An incident in Okota should not be used to generalise the whole election in Lagos State.

“The success rate should have been the story not the ugly incident that should be the story,” he said.

Tinubu, however, cautioned the media against the hype given to negative stories saying that such attributes would not bring the necessary progress.

“For the media, how can five units out of 1,325 units constitute a violent election and were given hype that Lagos is violent; we cannot do justice to that.

“How can we have development to the economy and the medium of information? In terms of security, Lagos has always been ready to celebrate democracy and is violence-free.

“The security officials are doing well and the INEC has started well too with the logistics well managed.

“The voters came out en masse,” he said.

Tinubu said that the state would always continue to be home for all irrespective of wherever they came from.

“We will continue to welcome everybody to Lagos State. We cannot stop people from coming to the state. If Lagos is not good enough, they won’t come.

“If the state is plagued with disease or insecurity or unemployment, people won’t come. Those leaving their states to come to Lagos are welcomed, they are not a threat,” he said. (NAN)