Election record vote buying in Ogun – Observers
Observers who monitored the election in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital have said that there was voting buying by party loyalists in some polling units, during the exercise.
One of the Observers, Jamiu Folarin who spoke to our correspondent disclosed that there was negotiation between voters and party canvassers who were seen promising money for whoever votes for their candidates
Although Folarin did not mention the particular party or candidate for whom the canvassers were buying the vote, he said some of the party faithfuls were also promising food for voters at the polling units.
Folarin, who disclosed that there was peace in the state capital during the process, regretted that the election witnessed low turnout.
He also noted that the election did not commence until past 9:00 am in most of the polling units he visited.
He said “I noticed that many of INEC officials left the local government around some minutes to 9:00 am but the election was supposed to start by 8: 30 and when I visited some of the polling units, as at 9am the election had not started so in terms of the election process in many polling units there was delay.
He added “In terms of security, the election was peaceful in most of the polling units I visited, there was no ballot snatching , voters were orderly. I also noted some level of negotiation and canvassing by members of political parties, some are promising voters money.
“Concerning the turnout, the turnout was relatively low as at the time I visited most of the polling units I can put the turnout to around 20 percent. In many of the polling units I visited, we had a total number of registered voters ranging from 1000 to 1002, some 800, 500 depending.
He also noticed that the BVAS worked perfectly in many of the polling units he visited.
“The process was seamless. The process of using BVAS is another ingenuity of the INEC, however there were issues with the BVAS in some of the polling units, he said.
