Political parties in Nigeria have devised new strategies for inducing voters to avoid the prying eyes of security and anti-graft agents.
In the Osun State Gubernatorial election, which was held on Saturday, June 16, 2022, REPORTERS AT LARGE observed at different polling units that politicians induced voters to vote for their respective parties.
A coalition of over 80 civil society organisations, under the aegis of the Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room, lamented the level of vote-buying by party agents.
It however commended the high turnout of voters, peaceful conduct of the exercise, adequate presence of security agents and efficiency of the BVAS machines.
The NCCSR in its second preliminary statement, signed by its co-conveners, Ene Obi, Asma’u Joda and James Ugochukwu, partly read, “There was open negotiation of buying and selling of votes, well-coordinated by the polling agents in many of the polling units. There were no complaints from any of them against one another.
“Codes and coupons were used to extract commitments from voters as opposed to the blatant way money exchanged hands in the Ekiti State governorship election. INEC’s deployment of materials and personnel should also be commended. Vote trading was recorded in most of the areas observed particularly outside Osogbo.”
It also pointed out that knowledge of voting procedures and civic education of voters was very poor while voting cubicles in many of the polling units were not positioned to ensure secrecy of the ballots making it possible for voters to show their votes to other people.
A civil society organisation and election observer group, Yiaga Africa, also condemned voter inducement in the election.
Yiaga Africa’s Executive Director, Samson Itodo, recommended that the security agencies should “impose appropriate sanctions for any form of violation of the Electoral Act on Election Day, especially any threat to the right to vote or attempts to buy votes”.
In a statement by the group, Itodo said, “Yiaga Africa received reports of acts of vote-buying perpetrated by agents of the APC and PDP in some polling units.
“Yiaga Africa observed voters showing how they mark their ballot papers to APC party agents before dropping them in the ballot box. Also, thugs associated with the APC threatened to stab any voter who did not vote for the APC.”
He however advised, “INEC to continue to uphold the secrecy of the ballot by ensuring voting cubicles and ballot boxes are situated to guarantee the secrecy of the ballot.”
Ogunbiyi alleges vote-buying
The candidate of the Accord Party in the election, Ogunbiyi, said vote-buying characterised the election in various parts of the state, especially Ayedire, Ile-Ogbo and Osogbo areas. He however commended INEC for the peaceful conduct of the election.
Ogunbiyi made the allegations shortly after he and his wife cast their vote at Ile-Ogbo Ward 1, Unit 1, Methodist Primary School.
He stated, “When I got to Ward 1 Unit 5, I observed that there was vote-buying with some people being offered N3,000 and N4,000 by different political parties. Even if l have the money to buy votes, I will not do such. I witnessed it; there was vote-buying in Osogbo and Ile-Ogbo. Let the whole world know what is happening.”
Speaking in an interview with our correspondents, both APC and PDP denied involvement in vote-buying while expressing confidence they would be victorious at the poll.
The Media Adviser to the APC chairman in the state, Kola Olabisi, told one of the correspondents that the ruling party would be victorious, adding that security agents performed optimally.
He said, “We are confident of victory, but one cannot say empathically for now. It is the overall results that will determine the overall winner. Don’t forget that Oyetola has turned the whole state into a huge construction site. Osun people are not forgetful. They will reward him accordingly.”
On vote-buying, “Vote-buying is not in APC’s dictionary. Where I was, I didn’t witness it, so I don’t know about it.”
The Director of Media and Publicity in Osun PDP, Oladele Oluwabamiji, said results already received indicated that the party was in a good place.
He said, “We are not just confident, we are arrogantly confident that the PDP will win convincingly going by the results coming in from across the state. I don’t want to be speculative, but by the grace of God, we are confident without being immodest.”
On vote-buying, he stated, “Though we tried to curtail vote-buying, APC still did it. You can’t be rejected by the people and you still expect them to vote for you. They see vote-buying as their only lifeline.”
