A non-governmental organisation, Yiaga Africa, on Thursday raised the alarm over alleged inducement of voters with money and gifts in 10 local government areas of Edo State ahead of the Saturday governorship election in the state.
The citizen-led organization, at a press conference in Benin City, alleged that the inducement was carried out especially by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Aisha Abdullahi, Yiaga Africa Watching the vote, 2020 Edo Election Observation Mission listed the 10 local governments to include Igueben, Oredo, Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako Central, Owan West.
Others are Ovia South-West, Egor, Ovia North-East, Esan West and Esan South-East local government areas. Abdullahi alleged that the inducement started during the campaigns by the political parties.
She, however, vowed that the organization would expose the Independent National Electoral Officer (INEC) if the results announced were manipulated and do not match the polling units’ results.
She also said if the official results announced by the INEC reflects the polling units’ voters, it will confirm it.
Abdullahi who noted that the run-up to the election, voters’ inducement has taken centre stage at the expense of issue-based politics, added that since it commenced the Pre- Election Observation (PREO) in July 2020, voter’s inducement has been a recurring decimal.
“Political parties, especially the APC and PDP, are investing in the distribution of money and gift items as a strategy to swing voters,” she said.
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“The pre-election environment revealed violent campaign rhetoric and hate speech, excessive use of force by political parties, especially the APC and the PDP, and unhealthy electoral competition.
“All forms of brigandage and violence defined the pre-election context. Yiaga Africa reports show that the incidents of violence were prevalent in 13 of the 18 local government areas,” she said.
She expressed concern that cases of coronavirus may increase in Edo state, as political parties and their supporters breached the COVID-19 protocols.
“Party campaigns were sign-posted with poor crowd management and reckless breach of COVID-19 safety protocols (wearing of face masks, social and physical distancing and hand washing.
“Yiaga will provide accurate information on the quality of the process and ascertain if the official results announced by INEC reflect the total vote cast,” she added.
Also speaking, Yiaga Africa’s executive director, Samson Itodo, urged INEC to remain neutral in the conduct of the election.
He said the organisation would deploy over 500 of its trained observers to ensure that all results of the election declared by INEC at the 192 wards are monitored and posted to its database.
