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From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
The Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA), an election monitoring group, has lauded the recognition given to the Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), aged, pregnant and nursing mothers in the Osun State governorship election.
The group at a press conference addressed by its Executive Director, Faith Nwadishi, in Osogbo, noted that the election was peaceful.
“As reported by our observers in the field, priority was given to the aged, the PWDs and the pregnant women as stipulated by INEC guidelines.
“There were separate queues for the aged, PWDs, the pregnant women and nursing mothers in most of the polling units our observers were deployed,” Nwadishi added.
Related: #OsunDecides: Oyetola wins polling unit
She, however, expressed displeasure over the rate of vote merchandising, saying “the ugly trend of vote buying that is fast becoming a major feature of our democracy reared its ugly head during the Osun state gubernatorial election.
“Our observers reported that vote buying, and selling by the major parties deploying new vote-buying scheme/tactics to evade security operatives.
“Nigerians, the INEC, vote-buying Agencies and other stakeholders need to work out measures to effectively address this ugly phenomenon. Political parties should be made to understand that encouraging vote buying is a criminal offence while the security agencies should make party officials liable for the vote buying activities of their agents,” the group added.
