There was a mini rowdiness at Ward 10 Unit 9, Ilupeju, along the Ikere-Ado Expressway in Ikere Ekiti, in the Ikere Local Government Area of Ekiti State, as some officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) allegedly stormed the polling unit and took away a huge sum of money from some politicians in the unit.
A voter in the unit told our correspondent on condition of anonymity that the undisclosed amount of money hijacked by the security men was meant to buy votes from the voters in the area.
According to him, some of the voters who had voted for their candidate in the unit left in annoyance as they were not able to collect money for the ‘work’ done.
He said, “They (NSCDC officers) stormed this unit and harassed the person holding the money. They collected the money from him and took it away. We who have voted for APC and are waiting to collect our money could not get the money. It is disappointing. We were told that the money is over N2million.
He added that the other voters who intended to sell their votes to the ruling party collected money from another party and voted for them.”
It was gathered that when the Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Mr Funminiyi Afuye, was informed about the development and rushed down to the unit with his security aides to see what actually happened.
On why he was at the unit, which is not his own unit, during the voting period, Afuye said as the speaker of the state assembly, he had the right to move around to monitor how the process was going.
He said,” I have voted in my unit, and I was just going round to see if there is one problem or the other, but there is no crisis, no violence. People can just stampede because they want to vote instead of lining up and spending less time, but they may crowd a place, and you know that is part of our culture. But the people have been conducting themselves well.
“By virtue of my position as the chief lawmaker of the state, the moment I don’t go and tamper with whatever they are doing, I’m observing; there is no problem. The only time I went there was when they said they wanted to confirm the number of the machines; that’s all.
The speaker also claimed to be oblivious of the vote-buying money allegedly snatched by the security agents, saying the alleged money was not from his party, the All Progressives Congress.
“I am not aware of that. I wasn’t here then, and if they were snatching money, they were not snatching from my party. No violence has been reported to me.”
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the Ekiti State Command of the NSCDC, Mr Afolabi Tolulope, said he was not aware of such an incident, as he was yet to get to the office.
