Osun Poll: Vote-Buying Widespread, Security Agencies Failed to Arrest Offenders — JDPMC

The Justice Development and Peace Makers Centre (JDPMC), Osogbo, has raised concerns over alleged widespread vote-buying and electoral violence during the just-concluded Osun State governorship election, accusing security agencies of failing to arrest suspects despite witnessing several incidents.

The organisation made this known in its preliminary election observation report presented at a press conference addressed by its General Coordinator, Rev. Fr. Peter Akinkunmi, on Saturday.

JDPMC said it deployed 80 trained observers to 140 polling units across 101 wards in all 30 local government areas of the state to monitor the election.

The organisation reported that vote-buying was widespread, although direct exchange of cash was not always carried out within the polling units.

According to the report, voters were frequently seen displaying their thumb-printed ballot papers to political party agents, while in some locations, voters had allegedly been informed of where to collect cash rewards away from the polling units.

The group also expressed concern over the response of security agencies to incidents of electoral violence, alleging that officers intervened to restore order in several locations but failed to arrest those involved.

“In all situations witnessed by our observers, though the security agents quelled such incidents, no arrests were made, even in cases involving the infliction of bodily harm and the destruction of election materials,” the report stated.

JDPMC said the election was conducted against the backdrop of a tense pre-election environment which recorded 10 deaths, describing the figure as the highest fatality rate recorded in any off-cycle governorship election since the beginning of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic.

It attributed part of the security challenges to what it described as the “seeming passivity” of security agencies, particularly the Nigeria Police Force, as well as deficiencies in their communication and response mechanisms to political violence.

The organisation documented several incidents, including alleged ballot-box snatching, physical assaults, verbal attacks and disruptions of voting and result collation.

In Boripe Local Government Area, JDPMC alleged that political thugs threw away a ballot box containing already-cast votes while voting was still ongoing.

It also reported that unidentified gunmen disrupted the collation of results at the Ward Ataoja D Collation Centre.

On the technical and operational side, the organisation identified challenges involving voter registers and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).

It said discrepancies were observed in some polling units in Olorunda and Ifon-Orolu, where the voter registers displayed publicly differed from those used for accreditation.

According to the report, seven of the 140 polling units observed experienced BVAS-related challenges. Three of the incidents were resolved within 15 minutes, while four reportedly remained unresolved for about two hours.

Despite the challenges, JDPMC commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for improvements in logistics and election management.

The report showed that 68 per cent of the observed polling units recorded early arrival of election officials, while voting commenced in most of the polling units by 8:30 a.m.

JDPMC further disclosed that results from 3,704 of the state’s 3,763 polling units had been uploaded to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV), representing 98.43 per cent of all polling units.

The organisation, however, expressed concern over the lack of assistive materials for persons with disabilities, noting that none of the polling units observed had materials such as Braille ballot guides or magnifying lenses.

While commending INEC for addressing most of the logistical and technological challenges encountered during the election, JDPMC said it would release a comprehensive report after the conclusion of the entire electoral process.