BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, has identified vote-buying as the only difficult challenge confronting the nation’s electoral processes and expressed optimism that the Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal Bill which is currently under the consideration of the National Assembly would combat the illegal practice.
He said this on Tuesday during an election stakeholders’ meeting held in Osogbo for the Osun gubernatorial poll to be held on Saturday.
Yakubu appealed to the National Assembly to speedily conclude and pass the Bill into law. He assured that the Osun election would beat the Ekiti record.
Addressing the gathering which included gubernatorial candidates and leadership of their political parties, Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi and other traditional rulers, top security echelon including the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba among others, the INEC boss lamented that some “retrogressive elements” were hampering the efforts of the commission through inducements and vote-buying.
He said, “While we will continue to work with the security and anti-corruption agencies to confront this challenge, our effort will be given a boost by the establishment of the Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal as recommended by the Uwais Committee in 2009, reinforced by the Lemu Committee in 2011 and the Nnamani Committee in 2017.
Happily, the Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal Bill is under consideration of the National Assembly.
INEC supports this initiative and appeals to the National Assembly for a speedy conclusion and passage of the Bill into law.”
Yakubu assured that the election would not be inconclusive like what was witnessed in 2018 saying, “I wish to reassure you that the Commission has taken every step to ensure that the election this weekend is free, fair, transparent, credible, inclusive and conclusive.”
He said, “Of the 1,955,657 registered voters in Osun State, 1,479,595 (or 76%) have collected their cards as at Sunday 10th July 2022,” adding that collection of PVCs in the state had been extended to Thursday 14th July 2022.
The INEC chairman disclosed that in order to make the electoral process more inclusive and participatory, 35 serving NYSC members with one form of disability or another have been identified, trained and engaged as ad-hoc staff at the polling unit level and appealed to all stakeholders to cooperate with, and protect them, as well as all other ad-hoc staff.
Also speaking, the Osun State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Abdulganiy Raji, revealed that non-sensitive materials have already been batched to the Polling Unit Level and are ready to be conveyed to the Registration Area Centres (RACs) for the conduct of the election.
Raji revealed that sensitive materials would arrive in Osun state on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the IGP, Usman Alkali Baba disclosed that 21,000 police personnel would be deployed for the election, in order to adequately protect both human and materials during and after the election. He assured that police would leave no stone unturned to ensure a free, fair, and credible election in Osun.
On vote-buying, the Police Chief said the force would be partnering with INEC and other security agencies to curb vote-buying and inducements during the election saying that the collaboration of stakeholders would proffer solutions to the ugly trend.
“Collectively we can proffer solutions to vote-buying. The catchers of buyers and sellers of votes are not only security agents,” he said.
In his remarks, Ooni Ogunwusi urged all governorship candidates to allow peace and desist from being desperate for power.
According to the monarch, “I urge all candidates to allow peace and to always remember that Osun is greater than anyone and will remain forever but everyone will go.
“Don’t use any means of desperation to get to power. Let’s give everything to the electorate and to God Almighty to decide. Don’t engage in a do-or-die affair,” Ooni urged the political parties and their flag bearers.
