A non-governmental organisation, Justice Development and Peace Makers Centre of the Catholic Diocese of Osogbo (JDPMC), that monitored the just concluded Ondo governorship election has said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recorded a commendable improvement in logistics, deployment of staff, and response to challenges during the poll.
The group noted that the improvement was noticed by the 18-man team of long-term trackers it deployed to various Polling Units across the 18 LGAs of the State for election observation, adding that it embarked on a three-month pre-election observation exercise under the European support for Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EUSDGN) Phase II which seeks to further its effort in deepening of democracy.
General Coordinator of JDPMC, Rev Fr Peter Akinkunmi, in a statement, x-rayed the poll and disclosed that it was marred by massive vote-buying.
However, Akinkunmi said: “JDPMC observed commendable improvement in INEC’s logistics, deployment of staff and response to challenges. There is also a commendable improvement in the conduct of deployed security agents with commendable response to incidence of violence.”
The cleric, however, pointed out that there is a need for improvement in logistics and deployment of security agents to various polling units, stressing that as the organisation had predicted from its pre-election observation, the election was marred by the massive incidence of vote buying across all LGAs and in most of the polling units in Ondo.
He said: “Incidence of vote buying seems to have characterised the most widespread illegality during the election. Generally, the exchange of money or material inducements was not observed in the PUs. But build-up towards it was observed therein.
“Voters snapped their thumb-printed ballot papers, took tags from party agents, in some cases voters registered their names, phone numbers, and account details with party agents. Some others received immediate cash from party agents at premises close to the polling units ranging from N3,000 to N10,000.”
Akinkunmi alleged both the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party of being the primary inducers of voters, narrating an incident of verbal violence between a party agent and voters at PU 12 Oke Ijebu-Jakos Junction RA 4 Ijomu/ Obanla Akure South where voters alleged that the amount they were given was below the original amount approved by the party.
Akinkunmi disclosed that the ad-hoc personnel of INEC in all Polling Units observed did not have data on persons with disability in their Polling Units, adding that no Polling Unit showed evidence of other assistive materials including magnifying lens and braille ballots for persons with disability deployed to their Polling Units.