Ekiti Decides: Election Peaceful But Massive Vote Buying Reported – CSO

The Convener of the coalition of CSOs, Ene Obi, made this known in the interim statement of the group made available to journalists in Abuja on Saturday.
Obi said that the Situation Room observed the Ekiti Governorship election and would continue to closely watch the process.

“Situation Room received reports of widespread vote-buying by political party agents across the 16 Local Government Areas of the State.

“In many instances, voters were induced with money ranging from N4,500 to N10,000 by asking them to flag completed ballot papers as proof of voting in a specified manner in what they term ‘See and Buy’.

“Situation Room strongly condemned this blatant violation of the electoral law.”

According to Obi, the election has been generally peaceful, with voters conducting themselves in a civil manner in most of the polling units.

She said that the redistribution of voters done by INEC still did not take care of the issue of a large number of voters in some polling units.

She added that many new polling units had a low number of voters while older polling units remain overcrowded.

Obi said that the group observed the early arrival of Poll officials and election materials in 93 percent of the polling units.

She added that the setup was done promptly and polls commenced before 9:00 am in at least 88 percent of the locations.