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By Henry Uche
Following the gubernatorial election held yesterday in Osun State, the Election Observers of Human & Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) and the Women Advocates Research & Documentation Centre (WARDC) have raised the alarm over the way and manner vote buyers and sellers are re- strategising to achieve their sinister end.
They made this known following the reports gathered from the process, hence the need for Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to swiftly up its game to reduce vote trading to the barest minimum.
From a joint preliminary report signed by the chairman of HEDA, Olanrewaju Suraju and the Executive Director of WARDC, Dr. Abiola Akiode-Afolabi, the groups also discovered a very clear lack of cooperation among government agencies, noting that while INEC was striving to enthrone fairness, transparency and credibility in the electoral process, dearth of unity of purpose among government agencies remains an albatross.
According to them, it was uncalled- for to see some security personnel conducting themselves in an unprofessional manner yesterday at the exercise.
“Vote merchants are craftily devising different tricks to trade on the conscience of electorate. So INEC must swiftly up their game and come up with top strategies to frustrate the efforts of these enemies of democracy who have vowed to assassinate our democracy.
“We want a situation where it would be very difficult for party agents to see electorate from where they’re seated or standing at every pooling units and booths. We don’t want party agents to see voters as they cast their votes, this is because politicians and their agents have, and are still re- strategising and coming out with different tricks and tactics to ensure they buy and sell votes, these days they do it on codes,
“But in line with our mandates, we shall continue to follow up events even proactively (politically and otherwise), what we want to see enthroned are fairness, equity, Justice, transparency and accountability in governance and leadership for the interest of every Nigerian,” they affirmed.
“While some of the Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) have improved on catching up on vote buyers notwithstanding the lack of inter-agency cooperation, the politicians continue to get smarter; hence, there is more to be done,”
HEDA and WARDC commended the efforts of LEAs particularly the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in curbing vote-buying, as the usual ominous vote-buying in public or with reckless abandon was minimized while a number of persons were arrested.
“There was more consciousness on the part of both buyers and sellers of vote, a good precursor to minimising the phenomenon altogether, an indication of successes of the post-election advocacy on the issue since the last general elections in 2019, though party agents were still in few cases caught offering money for votes.
“For instance, there was an incident where the EFCC reportedly went to conduct a search (based on an intelligence gathered) but on getting to the location, the place was fortified with some other LEAs, thereby denying the EFCC access to investigation and arrest of bigwigs involved in the act. Where other LEAs were expected to be cooperating and aiding the fight against vote-buying, they were found instead obstructing or perhaps abetting crime.” reports revealed.
The Civil Groups maintained that reports also highlighted the role of voters and community education in curbing vote-buying. According to the reports, “Some communities have so normalised vote-buying and related activities that opposing party agents already have an understanding within one another to look away and allow each party to buy votes from those who already have inclinations to vote for the particular party without one party attempting to induce the loyalists of another.”
“This arrangement, according to the report has been tagged “chop make I chop,” a slogan in the Nigerian Pidgin English translated to mean “Eat yours and let me eat mine (without either of us interfering in another’s business)”.
They commended the media for proving to be worthy partner in the fight against vote-buying as they on various occasions beamed the searchlight on vote markets as well as its stakeholders and alerted the LEAs accordingly, thereby aiding arrests and investigations.
The same report highlighted that in WARD 9, Unit 02 of Ifedapo Local Government, voting cubicle was placed in a position which compromised the secrecy of the vote, thereby leaving an opportunity for vote-buying.
They applauded the electorate for massive and early turnout, a good sign for subsequent elections in the country. However cases of BVAS malfunctioning was reported which almost trigger agitations, however, no violence was reported. The organisations vowed to monitor electoral processes at all levels to ensure that sanity, probity and morality is restored in the body polity.
