Tunde Sholanke
An election monitoring group, under the auspices of Yiaga Africa,has alleged that politicians have devised new method of buying votes through electronic transfer of money to voters in view of the current cashless economy being encouraged by the current administration.
Specifically,the group alleged that the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party’s representatives were seen collecting voters’ bank account details in Damaturu and Potiskum Local Government Areas in Yobe State, to make wire transfers ahead of the governorship and state Assembly elections.
It said same was reported from Akwa Ibom, that the PDP youths in Ibeno LGA were given a cash inducement of N1,000,000 after they had endorsed a candidate on Sunday, March 12, 2023.
The group also confirmed how it received reports of the distribution of money and food items by supporters of the APC in Mbakyaa Mbachougul, Tarka Local Government Area, Benue State.
Ezenwa Nwagwu, a member of the board of Yiaga Africa, who represented Hussaini Abdul, the Board Chairman,disclosed these at a press conference in Abuja on Thursday.
The election monitoring group also predicted that the challenges posed by the cash crunch in the country may also undermine the governorship polls, including the possibility of voter aparthy among majority of the electorates owing to the outcomes of the just conducted presidential and national assembly polls.
“One of the reasons behind the logistics challenges experienced during the Presidential election was due to unavailability of cash which impacted the transportation of drivers from Registration Area Centers to polling units.
“This is despite the promises made by the Central Bank of Nigeria that it will make available all the needed cash for effective logistics deployment. Yiaga Africa is worried that, if the challenges of scarcity of cash are not addressed, the Commission may experience further logistics challenges which will no doubt impact the quality of the process.
“We are also concerned that the low turnout of the presidential elections will be repeated for the gubernatorial elections. While INEC and others have continued to encourage voters to turn out for elections, citizen confidence in the Commission, poor voter education along with the lingering impacts of the Naira scarcity may impact voter turnout,” Yiaga noted.
The group is deploying a total of 1,547 duly trained and accredited stationary and roving observers to observe the conduct of the governorship election in 28 states in Nigeria.
