By Ayodele Oni
As voters in Osun State trooped out on Saturday to vote in the governorship election, reports from various parts of the state confirmed allegations of vote buying, harassment by security agents and arrest of suspected thugs by the police.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had earlier distributed materials across the state’s 30 local government areas.
With 2.3 million registered voters and 15 candidates in the race, the election also recorded complaints over the functionality of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), and an outbreak of violence at a polling unit in Ejigbo Local Government Area.
Report monitored via Channel’s Television, indicate that at 12:19 p.m., violence at Polling Unit 13, Ward 4, in Ejigbo LGA was said to have ensued after a youth found vote-buying materials allegedly belonging to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to the youth, the materials were seized because they could not watch illegality occur without doing anything about it. The people to whom the materials allegedly belong later arrived to whisk him away.
Earlier, at 12:02 p.m., voting had stopped at the polling unit following the eruption of violence, with INEC officials and residents scampering to safety.
Meanwhile, Governor Ademola Adeleke raised the alarm over alleged intimidation of voters by the police and the APC.
The governor, who is the candidate of the Accord Party, had earlier cast his vote at 9:10 a.m. at Abogunde Comprehensive 009, Ward 02, Abogunde Sagba, Ede North.
“I have received reports on authority, information that there is one police officer who was deployed to come and do a hatchet job in Osun from Port Harcourt.
“They call his nickname London. He is here in Ede hiding. His own job is to come and destroy Ede, and then scare people, shooting so that they will not vote.
“So, I am calling on the Inspector-General of Police to take note. I am calling on the security agencies to take note. They should deploy him,” Adeleke stated.
Similarly, the governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Najeem Salaam, raised concerns over the alleged denial of accreditation to ADC party agents in some polling units.
According to Salaam, the names of the agents were duly uploaded, but he claimed that the repeated denial of their accreditation amounted to a failure on the part of INEC.
“When you request for the party to upload their party agent and we did, I don’t understand how and why the party agent will not be given a tag.
“So if at the end of the day we do not have this, then the process is very questionable. Vote buying is out of it. I have never in my life bought votes.”
But the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Oyebamiji, commended INEC and security operatives for their efforts towards ensuring a smooth and peaceful exercise.
Oyebamiji, who cast his vote at Ward 9, Unit 11, in Ikire, Irewole Local Government Area of the state, along with his wife, Sekinat, appealed to the people of Osun State to remain calm and conduct themselves peacefully as voting and the collation of results continue.
“So far, my assessment is that everything is going peacefully, especially this unit. The election is going peacefully; INEC is doing their job; at the same time, the security people are in charge.
“I need to appeal to the people that it is important that they conduct themselves and vote peacefully.”
International election observers were sighted at Polling Unit 001, Ward 04, Alajue, Ede South, at 11 a.m.
At 10:48 a.m., voters at Unit 1, Alajue, Bode Street, Ede South, were seen in a long queue waiting to cast their ballots.
The polling unit has 869 registered voters, with complaints about the BVAS being slow.
The APC governorship candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, arrived to cast his vote at 10:47 a.m., while a long queue was also reported at Alajue PU 001, Ward 04, Ede South LGA.
Voting was also ongoing in Ijebu Ijesa, Oriade LGA, and Esa-Oke, Obokun LGA, as of 10:40 a.m., although the APC Campaign Council Director-General, Oluwole Oke, complained of a slight delay in accreditation due to issues with the BVAS device.
The Commissioner of Police, Erale Samuel Etaifo, said about 100 people from neighbouring Ondo and Ekiti states were in custody over alleged plans to disrupt the election.
He added that no arrests had been made so far on Saturday in connection with electoral violence.
“We have about 100 people in custody who have come from neighbouring states of Ondo and Ekiti to disrupt this election for the past one month. However, no arrests have been made today (so far) as a result of electoral violence,” he said.
Earlier, some voters in Ejigbo LGA were agitating over alleged vote-buying by a political party in the area. The development came amid reports of BVAS difficulties at Polling Unit 13, Ward 4, where a voter said the system did not recognise her.
