- … As PDP, APC engage in vote buying, pay between N2,500 and N10,000 per voter
- My party is not involved – Fayemi
- APC engaged in ‘see and buy’ – PDP
Ismail Omipidan, in Oye, Isan Afao, Iworoko, Ifaki and Ado
An average Ekiti voter yesterday became instantly rich. Depending on who the voter must have cast his/her ballot for, the least an average voter got was N2, 500. And this happened in Isan-Ekiti. If those who got the N2,500 had benefited the initial N4,000 from the other party, the voter would have smiled home with N6,500.
But in Oye, where one of the parties began with N7,000 per voter, before raising it to N10,000, which was only delivered to the voter after casting his/her ballot, such a voter would go home with between N14,000 and N11,000 if the voter had benefited from the other party’s N4, 000 which was distributed a day to the election.
Interestingly, Sunday Sun observed that the two leading parties in the election, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) took part in vote buying.
At Ifaki, specifically at the polling unit inside Methodist Pilot Nursery/Primary School, a chieftain of one of the parties complained openly that his party made a “tactical” blunder by insisting on sharing money to the voters on the day of election.
“I am a member of (name withheld). The other party had given out their money since Friday. But our people are insisting that until you vote and they see, they won’t pay you. This can affect our prospect here. I have done mine. God sees my heart,” the party chieftain told Sunday Sun at Ifaki.
Also, in one of the areas monitored, a chieftain of one of the parties, a prominent person in the state, who is known to our reporter personally, supervised the vote buying. At a point, the party chieftain was even panicking telling the boys monitoring the voters and leading them to collect their pay after voting that “our effort must not go in vain o. Are you sure these people are voting for us? I must win this polling unit o. Go back and tell all those on the queue that if they vote for us, after collecting the N7,000, they should come here to collect the balance of N3, 000.” Although Sunday Sun can authoritatively confirm that both PDP and APC were all involved in buying of votes, two leading chieftains of both parties who spoke to journalists after voting refused to admit that their parties were involved in what one of the observers described as a “show of shame.”
APC candidate for instance, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, insisted that his party was not involved in vote buying. Instead, he pointed the way of the PDP, saying PDP was the guilty party.
On his part, incumbent Governor of the state, Ayo Fayose, accused the APC of engaging in what he called “see and buy.” He was however quick to add that irrespective of the tactics employed by the APC, the PDP would win at the end of the day.
Describing the exercise as a disaster, Fayose further said: “I want to say that the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) has good intention, but the process has been hijacked by security agencies. This is a national disgrace and there is danger ahead.
“Remember we raised all these issues, as I speak, ballot boxes are being snatched by thugs in the very eyes of security personnel. What they call ‘see and buy money politics’ is going on right now.
“The police and civil defence members are aiding the process. I must repeat that this is a national disaster because the election is marred by violence.
“If this is the sample for 2019, I must say it is a lost ground. I want to say very specifically that this is a lost ground. They have taken over the election from INEC.” On the large turnout of voters, Fayose said the Ekiti people were prepared, but the security men were frustrating their efforts. What that means is that Ekiti people are ready and prepared for the election. They are contesting with the security men who were positioned to truncate their genuine intention to vote the candidate of their choice.
“We have some units where they have only accredited 20 voters because of the faulty INEC machines. Some people spend 40 minutes to be accredited. I think INEC needs to be enhanced.
“I am not going to be pre-empting the outcome of the election here, but the PDP win the election. There is a difference between what I am narrating and my capacity to win.
“In spite of all these, I will still win the election because I am in charge of the state electorate by 80 per cent. I won the last election by 82,000 votes. How can they recover from that gap, the people are still very much with us,” Fayose boasted.
