The Independent Na­tional Electoral Com­mission (INEC) is currently enmeshed in bribery allegations leveled against it by the Peoples Demo­cratic Party (PDP) as the people of Ondo troop out today to elect the next governor of the state.

In a post on his social media handle yesterday, Taiwo Adisa, the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo State and Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party National Campaign Council for Ondo State Governorship Elec­tion had alleged that reports from across the state indicated that INEC officials were being compromised to manipulate the election by agents of the ruling party in the state, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He alleged that the APC had promised the Supervisory Polling Officers (SPOs) across the 3,009 polling units in the state were promised $500 each to deliver their units for APC, adding that an initial sum of $300 each had been paid while the balance of $200 will be paid to the SPOs after the election.


He said “Reports from the political fields across Ondo State are indicating that offi­cials of the Independent Na­tional Electoral Commission (INEC) participating in the governorship election in Ondo State are already being subject­ed to dollar rain by agents of the All Progressives Congress APC)".

“Our men on the field report that APC agents in Ondo State are offering each of the Super­visory Polling Officers (SPOs) in each of the 3009 polling units as much as $500 to deliver each of the polling units to Akeredo­lu of APC.

As at the time information filtered, each of the SPOs were said to have been showered with an initial deposit of $300 with the promise that the bal­ance of $200 will be redeemed immediately after the units are delivered.”

When contacted, INEC de­scribed the allegation as lack­ing substance saying wild accu­sation will not distract it from conducting a credible election that will be a reference point in years to come.

Festus Okoye, Chairman, In­formation and Voter Education Committee, said rather than making unfounded allegations on social media, any individual with evidence of wrongdoing by INEC officials should lodge a report with relevant security agencies.

The Commission was not set up to respond to wild allega­tions lacking in substance and without grounding. Supervi­sory Presiding Officers do not conduct elections. Elections are conducted by Presiding Officers and assisted by Assis­tant Presiding Officers 1,11 & 111. The result of the Governor­ship election will be declared at the polling units and in the presence of polling agents, ob­servers and the media as well as some of the voters.

“The results will be upload­ed on INEC Result Viewing Portal. The results are subse­quently transmitted under security cover to the Ward Collation Centers where they are collated by the Registration Area Collation Officers. Super­visory Presiding Officers only assist in the distribution of ma­terials and the supervision of a cluster of polling units.

“Any individual that has co­gent and verifiable evidence of any wrong doing against any official of the Commission should make a report to the rel­evant security agencies. Wild allegations on the social media will not distract the Commis­sion from the due performance of its functions. The election is upon us and we should collec­tively work to deliver a good election.”

Also speaking, Rotimi Oyekanmi, Chief Press Secre­tary (CPS) to the INEC chair­man, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu said the commission will not join issues and allow itself to be distracted by the PDP, a par­ty that takes delight in raising false alarms.

“The Independent National Electoral Commission will not join issues with any political party, especially one that is well known for raising false alarms. The Commission is focused on delivering free, fair and cred­ible governorship election scheduled for tomorrow 10th October in Ondo State and will not be distracted by baseless al­legations.”

There was uneasy calm yes­terday in most parts of Ondo State ahead of the governor­ship election holding today.

A total number of 1,478,460 voters will troop out to elect the governor who will pilot the affairs of the state, widely regarded as the Sunshine State for the next four years.

According to information provided by INEC, even though 1,822,346 people were regis­tered to vote, a total number of 343,886 persons failed to collect their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) which automatically disqualified them from partic­ipating in the election.

The voters will decide whether to hand over a fresh mandate to incumbent gov­ernor, Rotimi Akeredolu, candidate of the All Progres­sives Congress (APC) or elect a fresh hand to take over from him.

Although 17 political parties were cleared to participate in the election, many of them have fizzled out of the race as 11 of them earlier this week adopted Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) as their candidate, thereby merging their structures with the PDP.

The political parties that ad­opted Jegede are Accord Party (AP); Action Alliance (AA); Ac­tion Democratic Party (ADP); Action Alliance Congress (AAC),All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA); All Progres­sives Movement (APM); All Peoples Party (APP); New Ni­geria Peoples Party (NNPP); National Reformation Move­ment (NRM), the Social Demo­cratic Party (SDP), and Young Progressives Party (YPP).

Observers believe the elec­tion will be a two-horse race between the APC, which is the ruling party in the state and the Peoples Democrat­ic Party (PDP), which has Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) as its candidate.

However, Agboola Ajayi, the deputy governor of Ondo State, who is running on the platform of the Zenith Labour Party is also said to be a third force that can upset the two leading politi­cal parties in the election.

INEC has also mandated the use of face masks for individ­uals before they can exercise their franchise in the election.

This is part of measures by the Commission to ensure the safety of voters amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

https://www.independent.ng/bribery-allegation-rocks-inec-as-ondo-state-elects-governor-today/

All this Allegations won't stop rigging today, it has become o norm in our political system

Nah eh! No qualms

Ondo is APC shaa

V

Oya lead the protest

Reformers1:
INEC needs to be Reformed too.

Reformers Worldwide

Funny enough this is not news. We know already that only the highest bidder win election.

This country need total overhauling in all sector.