AfriPulse
- Why we can’t stop vote buying – State REC
From Romanus Ugwu, in Ekiti
The incumbent governor, and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Biodun Oyebanji, Dr Wole Oluyede and Amb Dare Bejide of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and African Democratic Congress (ADC) respectively, among other candidates, will today battle for the votes of over 1.028 million electorate for Ekiti State off-cycle governorship election.
Other candidates who will compete for the votes of the electorate include Opeyemi Falegan, Accord Party, Olu Omotoso, Allied Alliance, Akande Oluwasegun, African Action Congress, Isaac Alade, Social Democratic Party, Ayodeji Ojo, Action Democratic Party, Bidemi Awogbemi, Allied Peoples Movement, Joseph Anifowose, Action Peoples Movement, Oyebanji Olajuyin, Labour Party, Blessing Abegunde, New Nigeria Peoples Party, Ayodele Praise, Peoples Redemption Party, Olusegun Osinkolu, Young Progressives Party and Victor Adetunji, Zenith Labour Party.
Although the candidates are numbered 15, the reality on ground in the state confirmed that the trio of Oyebanji, Oluyede, and Amb Bejide will give each other a run for their money.
Despite the obscurity of the posters of many of the opposition party candidates, the electorate will today decide the fate of the real contenders and pretenders at the 2445 Pulling Units across the state.
To confirm their readiness for the election, the Ekiti electorate, broke an unprecedented record in the collection of voters cards, increasing from 987,647 in 2023 to 1,059,360 certified to cast their votes.
Saturday Sun can report that at every part of the state capital and environ , there are adequate deployment of gun-wielding security personnel strategically located to ensure the safety of innocent stakeholders.
However, in what looked like pressing panic button, PDP candidate has expressed deep concerns over the questionable conduct of the security agencies.
He said: “I am very wary and suspicious of the fairness of the present police force in Ekiti because there are situations where my supporters are arrested for unjustifiable reasons.”
Meanwhile Ekiti State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr Bunmi Omoseyindemi, has stated that the commission will not guarantee the stoppage of vote buying and selling during Saturday’s Ekiti State off-cycle governorship election.
Omoseyindemi dropped the hint while fielding questions from newsmen in Ado-Ekiti on the eve of the poll. He said that vote buying and selling come in different forms not only the ones in the field.
He further noted that the security agencies have however been put on red alert to take charge of the situation.
The Ekiti REC also singled out fake news as the biggest threat facing the poll, pleading with the Nigeria media to exercise caution, show maturity in their reportage of the election activities.
On plans to checkmate incidents of vote buying, he said: “First of all, there must be enough education to the people not to buy votes and not to sell votes.”
“People must change their mindset on the electoral process. They must not see during the election as the only time they can change their life every time.
“Until we can get through that proper way of educating people, we will still have these incidents of vote buying, which comes in various forms. However, the people that we see on the election day are the ones that we will see. It is the responsibility of the ICPC and the EFCC to handle them. It is not the responsibility of INEC,” he said.
Asked how prepared is the commission in terms of security, he said: “We are well prepared. We have been having regular meetings with the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES). We are going to bank on the consultative committee on electoral security. They are mapping strategies on how to take care of all the strategic things.”
He also assured that every necessary arrangement has been made, explaining:
“We have made the necessary arrangements for this. Election is a cycle. And when one finishes, another one start. So we have been preparing for the past four years. It is just this time that it has gotten to the climax of the whole thing.
“We distributed non-sensitive material a long time ago. But on Thursday, we went to the Central Bank to collect the sensitive material. It has been distributed to the Local Governments Area. And on Friday afternoon, we will set up the RAC Centre. And from there, all the officers, SPO that are supposed to work at RAC, must be there, including the polling, presiding officers, assistant presiding officers, and the RAC Tech people all of them will be there,” he said.
Omoseyindemi, while enumerating the challenges noted: “The deepest challenge we are facing is fake news by the media. That is the truth. It is the fake news that causes panic within the system. When people are writing stories that are not true and trying to frighten people, like such report that many people are kidnapped somewhere, and they may not have even visited the place to know what is happening. So, fake news is a major threat to this electoral process.”
Source: SunNewsOnline | Read the Full Story…
