Political parties in the Osun State Governorship Election on Saturday adopted a new method of vote-buying by using food hawkers to distribute cash ranging from N10,000 to N20,000 to voters.
Penpushing reports that findings revealed that the practice was most pronounced among the All Progressives Congress, (APC), and the Accord Party (AP), both major contenders in the governorship race.
The investigation observed that many food hawkers deliberately positioned their sales points a few meters from polling units and wards, disguising their activities as regular food sales to electorate.
Penpushing further reports that vote-buying agents were seen lobbying the food sellers, who were also part of the arrangement, and immediately after casting their votes, targeted voters approached the hawkers to collect their share of the money.
The sellers, under the pretext of attending to customers, secretly handed cash to the beneficiaries, who quickly left the scene, while sources added that the vote-buying began six days before the election.
Penpushing also reports that the parties equally collected the account details of thousands of voters a week before the election, with plans to credit them after voting while sources added that both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Accord Party (AP) reportedly began distributing cash between Monday and Tuesday, and the distribution continued through Saturday, election day.
The vote-buying scheme also included the distribution of food items, cash gifts, and inducements laced with spiritual elements, and beneficiaries were allegedly made to swear an oath to vote for the party providing the items.
“I collected my N20,000. The cash was in N1,000 and N500 denominations. There were over 200 voters and it was done unit by unit. I collected mine around 11am at a bungalow,” one of the beneficiaries confessed.
“Both APC and Accord are distributing money, but APC has the upper hand because it is paying N15,000 against Accord’s N10,000. As for me, I collected from both parties in my polling unit,” another voter said.
Penpushing reports that a chieftain of one of the parties, who pleaded anonymity, however, argued that the cash given to voters was not for vote-buying but for transportation.
“We are not buying votes. We only provided them with cash to transport themselves to their various polling units. We targeted 150 voters in every unit. We gave N15,000 each to 75 voters on Wednesday, and another 75 voters received N15,000 each on Thursday. That was not really for vote-buying; it was for feeding before election day. We know what to do on election day,” he said.
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