Representatives of both the All progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) on Saturday traded blames over allegations of vote-buying, accusing each other of trying to sway voters by offering electorate money for their votes.
Recall that an agent of the PDP was arrested during the state’s gubernatorial poll on Saturday for alleged vote-buying at ward 1, unit 1, Obada Ede local government area of Osun state.
The agent whose identity was not disclosed was said to have brought out money openly, forcing security operatives at the unit to pick him up.
At unit 1, Asunmk ward in Talafia area of Ede, an APC agent was also alleged to have claimed that he had some money with him to be distributed to those who voted for the party.
The PDP accused the ruling party of planning to buy votes with billions of Naira in order to manipulate the people to vote for the ruling party’s candidate, Gboyega Oyetola.
The opposition party denied that its candidate in the election, Ademola Adeleke, was collecting bank details of the electorate through a WhatsApp number in order to buy their votes.
The PDP Chairman in Osun State, Mr. Soji Adagunodo, noted that the APC had detected several means through which the APC wanted to rig the election.
Adagunodo said, “We wish to alert the general public to the planned monetisation of the Osun State governorship election, especially the voting process, by the APC. Towards this ignoble end, several helicopters loaded with cash were flown into the Government House between the hours of 4pm and 8pm on Thursday.
“The money, which we were reliably informed about run into billions of naira, was contributed by state governors elected on the platform of the APC to enable the party to induce voters at various polling units.”
But, when contacted, a chieftain of the APC in Osun State, Mr. Sola Fasure, who is also the media aide to Governor Rauf Aregbesola, asked the PDP to provide evidence of its allegations.
In defence of the ruling party, Fasure said the opposition party had started inducing voters ahead of the election, adding that the PDP raised the allegation as a smokescreen to divert attention from the alleged electoral fraud the party had perfected.
“We are not giving out money to anybody; anyone who claims to have collected money from us should come out to the public and say it. We have the strategy of winning elections by going out to canvass for votes and they have the strategy of taking shortcut by paying to induce voters and to circumvent the electoral process. They have started inducing voters already but they will fail woefully.”
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, on Friday, said the commission had recently observed increasing voters’ inducement through electronic transfers to influence their choice of voters on the day of the election.
According to a release by INEC on Friday, Yakubu led a team of national commissioners to the EFCC on Thursday to look at further steps that could be taken to address the vote-buying and selling menace.
“We implore the EFCC to also monitor campaign finances of political parties and their candidates. We don’t want the moneybags to determine our democracy. We want the votes of the people to determine who wins in our elections.”
Meanwhile, the EFCC has said it will monitor money transfers, collaborate with banks, arrest and prosecute vote-buyers during the Osun State governorship election on Saturday.