INEC admits votes buying in Ekiti governorship election

• Promises corrective measures in 2019

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), at last, owned up to recognize and admit   that there was voting buying in the concluded controversial governorship election in Ekiti State won by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Kayode Fayemi. The Commission, however, indicated that measures would be taken to curtail such practice in subsequent elections.

National Daily gathered that INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of the Legal Services Committee, May Agbamuche-Mbu, admitted the incidence of vote buying in the Ekiti election at a public function in Benin where she indicated the INEC would take measures to curb act in subsequent elections.

Agbamuche-Mbu was cited to have declared:  “INEC is taking issue of vote-buying very seriously. I am just coming as part of the Supervising National Commissioner for Ekiti and these things occur. We are having another conference on electoral offences. Vote-buying is another electoral offence and we are looking at ways to curb it.

“Politicians keep trying their best. Politicians were clever in Ekiti. They have ingenious ways to sort themselves out. We will go back and review it and see how we can stop vote buying with the best of our ability.”

Earlier, Senator Ayo Arise, an APC leader in Ekiti State, had on a national television programme admitted that there was vote buying in the Ekiti governorship election, noting that PDP did it before the Election Day. Thus, the APC and others took advantage of the sealed deal to double their amount in the votes merchandise.

More so, The Center for Democracy and Development, and other accredited election observer from Civil Society in the Ekiti election, had earlier raised alarm over the rampant buying of votes in the Ekiti governorship election as well as the violence by the Police which resulted in the intimidation of voters, in their preliminary reports. They declared that the election “witnessed an unprecedented level of voters trading.”