The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, a body of over 70 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) said it has received reports of widespread vote buying by political party agents across Ekiti state at the Saturday governorship election.
It said in many instances, voters were induced with money ranging from N4,500 to N10,000 by asking them to flag completed ballot papers as proof of voting in the specified manner in what they term “See and Buy”.
Situation Room which made the observation in an interim report signed by Ene Obi, convener, Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room on Saturday afternoon strongly condemned the blatant violation of the electoral law.
The body called on called on the police Authority to apprehend those involved in voters’ inducement and maintain law and order throughout the process and beyond and urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that the on-going process is concluded transparently and credibly.
It commended INEC for improved logistics which is better than the experiences in both the Anambra state governorship election 2021 and FCT Area Councils Elections 2022 and acknowledged security operatives civil conduct.
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The report read in parts: “At this time, Situation Room makes the following observations:
“General: The election has been generally peaceful, with voters conducting themselves in a civil manner in most of the polling units. The redistribution of voters done by INEC still does not take care of the issue of large number of voters in some polling units as many new polling units had abysmally low numbers while older polling units remain overcrowded. There were also polling units sited in private residences such as PU006 Omiragunsin’s House, Okemesi Ward 1, Ekiti West LGA and PU003 in front of Ezekiel’s House Iroro/Ita Alafia Iroro Imegun, Ward 3 Araromi Omuo, Ekiti East LGA.
“Logistics and Commencement of Poll: Situation Room observed early arrival of Poll officials and election materials in 93% of the polling units observed. Set up was done promptly and polls commenced before 9:00am in at least 88% of the locations. This is an improvement of both the Anambra State Governorship Election 2021 and FCT Area Councils Elections 2022.
“Bi-Modal Verification Accreditation System (BVAS): Our observations indicate the BVAS was functional in at least 76% of the voting locations. However, there have been many reports of delays and malfunctioning BVAS machines in some voting units especially those with many registered voters. Examples of the locations where the machines malfunctioned are PU 002 Igbaletere by Mechanic Workshop, Ward 6 Ado Okeyinmi, Ado-Ekiti LGA where the Machine was going on and off intermittently, PU 007 LA Primary School Oke Afin, Otun Ward III and PU018 Igogo Ward II both in Moba LGA where the BVAS failed, and PU 014, Ward I Okemesi, Ekiti West LGA, amongst others. Furthermore, INEC’s distribution of the BVAS devices was not proportionate to the population of registered voters by polling unit.
“Priority Voting: Situation Room notes that poll officials gave priority to PWD voters, elderly persons and pregnant women in most of the polling units observed. However, citizens refused to recognise people with albinism as persons with disabilities (PWDs), thereby failed to accord them special consideration at the polling units. Also, voting cubicles were not easily accessible to PWDs.
“Presence, Conduct and Welfare of Security Officials: Security officials deployed for the election were diverse and cuts across Police Officers, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) etc. Situation Room notes that security officials arrived the polling units on time and were civil in their conduct.
“However, the impact of their presence was not felt in voters’ coordination at most of the polling units. Also, the Police failed to halt the apparent vote buying witnessed by observers in virtually all the polling units.”
