Election observer: Vote-buying mars Ekiti guber poll

An election observer, CLEEN Foundation, has revealed that the Ekiti State governorship election held on Saturday was marred with vote-buying.

The foundation disclosed that party agents induced voters with money in favour of their parties, adding that tallies were handed over to the electorate as a form of a cheque to be cashed out at an unidentified location.

It added that in a local government area of the state, there was a collaboration between security operatives and party agents to induce voters with money.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Biodun Oyebanji, as the winner of the gubernatorial election.

Oyebanji polled 187,057 votes to defeat his two closest challengers – Segun Oni of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Bisi Kolawole of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

SDP came second in the election with 82,211, while PDP occupied the third position with 67,457 votes.

However, CLEEN Foundation, in its report on the conduct of the election, said the poll was marred with vote-buying.

The report, which was issued and made available to The Star on Monday by the Acting Executive Director of CLEEN Foundation, Ruth Olofin, was titled, ‘CLEEN Foundation Preliminary Statement on 2022 Ekiti State Governorship Election’.

The foundation stated that 32 Citizens Election Observers were deployed to the 16 Local Government Areas of Ekiti State to observe the conduct of security operatives in the state, noting that the election was peaceful.

CLEEN Foundation added that it deployed ‘CLEEN Mobile App’ which allowed its observers to report in real-time security developments in the election and other related issues in their respective areas of observation.

It stated that observations across the 16 Local Government Areas of Ekiti State showed early arrival of INEC staff and materials as well as voters for the polls across the state, noting that the early arrival was observed in 85% of the Polling Units covered.

The foundation, however, commended the people of Ekiti State for turning out en masse to perform their civic duty just as it applauded INEC for the “noticeable” improvement in the conduct of the gubernatorial election.

The foundation stated: “Early Arrivals of Security personnel: According to the report from CLEEN’s Citizens Observers, 24% of security personnel arrived at the polling units before 7:00 am, 69% arrived before 8:00 am while 7% arrived after 8:00 am. This indicates that 93% of security personnel arrived early at the polling units across the 16 LGAs in Ekiti state.

“Specifically, CLEEN observers in PU 008, ward 004 in Ikere LGA, security personnel arrived 7:30 am in the company of INEC officials. At PU 007, ward 01 in Efon LGA, the security personnel arrived at 7:39 am. In PU 006, ward 06 in Ikole LGA, the security personnel arrived at 7:40 am.

“Possession of Firearms: The CLEEN Foundation Election Security Support Centre (ESSC) observed that the security personnel at the polling units were not armed in compliance with the rules guiding the elections. All our CLEEN Foundation citizen observers reported that security personnel at the polling units were not armed. Armed security personnel were seen, however, they maintained a reasonable distance from the polling units.

“Adequacy of Security Personnel: CLEEN Foundation observed that 69% of the polling units had three or more presence of the security personnel, 21% of the polling units had two security personnel while 9% of the polling units had one security personnel and 1% of the polling units had no security personnel at all.

“Identification of Security Personnel: A total of 97% of security personnel were observed to wear easily identifiable name tags while 3% were not wearing easily identifiable name tags.

“Approachability of Security Agents: CLEEN observers reported that 41% of the security personnel were very approachable, 45% were approachable, 10% were somewhat approachable while 4% were not approachable.

“Feeling of Safety of Polling Units: A total of 48% of CLEEN Foundation observers reported to have felt very safe and secured at the polling units, 38% felt safe and secured while 14% felt somewhat safe and secured.

“Impartiality of Security Personnel: The majority of the security personnel were observed to be impartial in the discharge of their duty as 21%, 31%, 3%, 41% were observed to be very impartial, impartial, somewhat impartial and Not impartial at all respectively.

“Overall Conduct of Security Personnel: CLEEN Foundation observed that 90% of security personnel deployed on election duty were of good conduct while 7% of the security personnel were reported to be of fair conduct and 3% were of bad conduct.

“CLEEN Foundation received reports of security personnel collecting money from a politician and sharing among themselves. This happened at PU 009, ward 2 Okeruke in Ikere LGA of Ekiti state.”

The foundation added: “Impressive Turn Out of Electorates: CLEEN Foundation observed a good turn-out of voters across the polling units in the 16 LGAs of Ekiti state. Images captured by CLEEN Foundation observers show an impressive turnout of electorates.

“Functionality of BVAS: CLEEN Foundation observed an improvement in the functionality of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) as it was observed to be widely used across all polling units.

“However, in Moba LGA, Igogo ward 2 PU 016; 017 and 018 the BVAS malfunctioned as both fingerprint and facial recognition failed. In Ekiti East LGA, Ward 6, PU4, Obadore 1, Omuo-Ekiti, Ekiti East LGA and at Ikere, Ward 10, PU 14, all also had issues of BVAS malfunctioning. These were escalated to INEC and were all resolved.

“Inclusivity/Priority Voting: INEC gave priority to the elderly, pregnant women and persons with disability in the process.

“For instance, in Ijero LGA, Arokodare, Ward D, PU 003 the elderly and pregnant women voted first. However, in Ekiti South-West LGA, Ward 8, PU 12 a woman with a baby was not given priority voting as she was seen standing in line. Also noted was the improved participation of women and youth in the electoral process.

“Vote Trading: CLEEN Foundation observed vote trading during the process, for instance at PU 003, Ward D, Arokodare, Ijero LGA incidences of vote-trading were recorded.

“Party agents were seen inducing voters in favour of their parties, tallies were handed over to them as a form of a cheque to be cashed out at an unidentified location.

“Also, in Ekiti-West LGA, PU 09, Ward 7 Ipole-Iloro, there was a collaboration between security and party agents to induce voters with money. However, at PU 02 Ilawe, Ward 1, Ekiti-South West LGA, fighting broke out at the polling unit because voters rejected money from party thugs. Similar incident also occurred at PU 003, ward D in Ijero LGA.

“In view of the foregoing, the CLEEN Foundation commends the good people of Ekiti state for turning out en-mass to perform their civic duty.

“CLEEN also commends the Independent National Electoral Commission for the noticeable improvement in the conduct of the Ekiti state governorship election especially the near absence of logistics challenges that had remained a perennial issue for the electoral umpire before now.

“CLEEN Foundation applauds the security agencies particularly the Nigeria Police Force as the lead agency in election security management in Nigeria for the good conduct of its security personnel thus far. CLEEN calls on INEC and security agencies to maintain this level of professionalism till the end of the election. Overall, the election has been peaceful so far,” the report read.

The Star had reported that the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested some persons alleged to have engaged in vote-buying in the governorship election.

The EFCC operatives, who were part of security operatives deployed to monitor the election, arrested some vote buyers with wads of cash and books containing details of voters.

Earlier, the SDP governorship candidate, Segun Oni, alleged that voters were induced with money in Ado-Ekiti and Oye Local Government Area of Ekiti State.

Oni made the allegation while speaking to newsmen shortly after casting his vote at Polling Unit 010, Ifaki-Ekiti, his hometown.

Also speaking, the ADP governorship candidate, Kemi Elebute-Halle, alleged vote-buying by other political parties in the gubernatorial election.

Elebute-Halle, the only female candidate in the election, alleged that the APC, PDP, and SDP were buying votes with N10,000, N5,000, and N3,000 respectively.

A resident of Ado-Ekiti, identified as Musa Faruk, said some suspected political agents distributed between N10,000 and N12,000 to the voters who agreed to vote for their preferred governorship candidate.

The Star

Segun Ojo