THE All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate, Mr Biodun Oyebanji has emerged the winner of Ekiti State government election by a landslide'  beating his closest rival, Mr Segun Oni of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), by at least 100,000 votes.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Hon Bisi Kolawole, came third.

The election was however marred by vote-buying which  saw the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, arresting two people including a chieftain of the PDP  in Ado Ekiti, following alleged attempts to induce voters and cause violence.

SDP candidate, Segun Oni lost his Ido-Osi LGA while Kolawole won his Efon Alaaye LGA.

How APC agent duped us – Voters

 
Meanwhile , a mild drama played out at the Ado Ekiti, Ijigbo Ward 004, Unit 001 as some voters complained bitterly that an APC agent failed to give out money promised them before voting for their candidate.

Some women were heard complaining about how the APC agent declined to settle them after voting for the party’s candidate.

One of them was heard saying: “We will disappoint them in the presidential election; they think they are wise to have played us.

They successfully tricked us into voting their party. No wahala.”

“In the morning, PDP and SDP shared N5,000 each to their persons, but here we are hoping to get N10,000 from APC but ended up disappointed.”

Asides vote-buying, two men were arrested in Ise-?rùn for allegedly disrupting election in one of the wards and snatching ballot boxes.

According to eyewitnesses, the two men shot sporadically at Odo-Moba Ward 1 Unit 4, forcing voters to flee before snatching the ballot boxes.

They were, however, caught by men of the Nigeria Army while attempting to escape.

The election, however, witnessed high turn-out of voters and heavy security presence as the electorate trooped out to vote for their preferred candidate who will occupy Oke Bareke Government House and pilot the affairs of Ekiti State for another four years.

The election was open for 749, 065 voters out of 988,923 registered voters, who collected their Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, to vote in 2,445 polling units, 177 wards and 16 local councils of the state.
Also, 16 political parties, including the APC, SDP, PDP, Young Progressive Party, YPP, African Democratic Congress, ADC, and Action Democratic Party, ADP, took part in the poll.

41 vote-buying cases recorded in six LGAs — CDD

The Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, said its field observers documented 41 instances of vote-buying and selling at polling units across six Local Government Areas (LGAs) during the governorship election.

According to the civil society group, the cases were recorded at Ado-Ekiti, Ijero, Ikole Irepodun/Ifelodun, Ise/Orun and Moba LGAs of Ekiti.

The Chairman of CDD’s Election Analysis Centre (EAC), Prof. Adele Jinadu, revealed the development Saturday evening at a preliminary briefing of journalists in Abuja on the conduct of the governorship election.

According to him, vote-buying took the patterns of cash collection in brown envelopes to disguise the content in order to avoid arrest by anti-corruption agencies.

The CDD-EAC Chair stated that, in some cases, some young voters openly displayed the money, explaining that the universities’  strike influenced some of them to perceive the election as an opportunity to solve their economic challenges.

He said,” CDD-EAC observers documented 41 instances of vote buying and selling at polling units. Observer data showed incidents of vote-buying and selling in LGAs like Ado-Ekiti, Ijero, Ikole Irepodun/Ifelodun, Ise/Orun and Moba.

“One of the observable patterns of vote buying was the collection of cash in brown envelopes, which was apparently meant to disguise the content of the envelopes in order to avoid arrest by the anti-corruption agencies”, Jinado stressed.

While stating that the general atmosphere of the election was peaceful, the CDD noted that the conduct of the poll by the INEC showed some progress in terms of the administration. 

It, however, added that there remained several areas of concerns, which call for stronger management of elections.

Meanwhile, the presence of security operatives did not deter inducement of voters as political parties were involved in the act. 

Party agents were involved in inducement as voters were offered cash ranging from N3, 000 to N10, 000.

Although, the voting was largely peaceful, the new trend of vote-buying called ‘See and Buy’ where voters had to evolve ways of showing their thumb-printed ballots to party agents or chieftains nearly marred the exercise in some parts of Ekiti.

Following separate attempts to induce voters and cause violence, the NSCDC arrested two people in Ado-Ekiti.

The Director, Public Relations at the Corps’ National Headquarters, DCC Olusola Odumosu, in a preliminary statement, said: “Two persons were been arrested in Ado Local Government; one in connection with vote-buying while the other was arrested in connection with thuggery to disrupt voting at a polling unit.”

Similarly, operatives of the EFCC arrested a stalwart of the PDP for allegedly inducing voters at Ola Oluwa Muslim Secondary School, Ado Ekiti, during the governorship election.

The party chieftain was arrested with a large sum of money.

The party agent at the Polling Unit, Babajide Adebayo, who confirmed the incident, said: “When EFCC people came, somebody pointed at the PDP chieftain who was standing alone. 

There was nobody with him, he was not talking to anybody or given money to anybody, he was arrested and whisked away. The PDP stalwart is an engineer, he came to work in Ekiti but I have made calls to tell our leaders about the arrest.”

EFCC operatives were seen in large number in some polling units where some major parties were alleged to have engaged in vote-buying.

The operatives, however, declined comments when approached before whisking the party chieftain to an unknown destination.