We Are Not Responsible For What Happens At Polling Unit- INEC Reacts To Alleged Vote Buying In Ekiti

Allegations of vote buying have been prevalent in the just concluded governorship election in Ekiti state.

Biodun Oyebanji of the All Progressive Congress was on Sunday morning declared winner of the election after polling over 168,000 votes to defeat Segun Oni of the Social Democratic Party and Bisi Kolawole of the People’s Democratic Party.

Since the result was announced, there has been allegations of voters inducement on the part of the ruling party which made them secure such a whooping votes.

In a statement issued by SERAP, INEC was given till Friday as deadline to prosecute those who are accused of vote buying in the state. 

While some people belived that APC was the culprit, several others were of the opinion that all the political parties are guilty of the allegation. The only difference is that the ruling party turned out to be the highest bidder and reason for the large number of votes secured.

Going by the rumour circulating on social media, it was alleged that APC paid 10,000 naira per vote, PDP bought a vote for 5,000 while SDP spent 3,000 naira.

Responding to the development on the Monday edition of Arise TV Morning Show, the Independent National Electoral Commission through its commissioner for information and voters education, Festus Okoye said it is not the responsibility of the commission to monitor what is happening at the polling unit.

Okoye noted that INEC is too busy with electoral matter than engaging in the activities of the polling unit during election proceedings.

According to him, in every polling unit, there is a presiding officer. The presiding officer who is a Youth Corper is assisted by two agents who are in most cases students of federal institutions. In addition to them, about two or three security agents are stationed in the polling unit to monitor every of the activity.

In a situation where there is electoral infraction such as ballot snatching, thugery, or vote buying, it is the security agents who are mainly the police officers that would make an arrest and prosecute the culprit.

Okoye explained that large number of police are deployed to state where there is election in order to have enough security on ground and prevent these kind of malpractices.

The INEC commissioner noted that the commission had played its major part through prompt deployment of electoral officers and materials to locations, and as early as 8am, voters accreditations and voting had commenced in virtually every part of the state.

And by 8pm on that day, about 95 percent of the result have got to the state collation center in Ado Ekiti. This shows that the conduct has been largely successful on the part of INEC.

If there is anything like vote buying, it is the police that didn’t do their job very well and INEC should not be held responsible for that. 

Festus Okoye explained on Arise News Morning Show.