An election monitoring group, YIAGA Africa, says the recent escalation in the activities of political thugs, cultists, as well as voters’ inducement remains potential threats to the peaceful conduct of Osun state’s July 16 governorship election.
The Director of Programmes of the group, Cynthia Mbamalu, disclosed this while presenting YIAGA Africa’s pre-election reports at a news conference, on Wednesday, in Osogbo, the Osun state capital.
Mbamalu, who noted that the group commended the recent arrest of some political thugs by the police, said there was an urgent need for more intelligence to be deployed in addressing the rising threats to ensure more arrests and prosecution of culprits.
She said the critical job of effectively securing citizens, electoral materials and stakeholders without any bias should remain a priority for the security agencies before the election.
Mbamalu also said that the rate of voters’ inducement across the state is increasing, adding that if the practice of vote merchandising is not curbed, it will consistently de-legitimise political mandate and undermine the electoral process.
“Yiaga Africa’s pre-election reports have revealed the activities of cultists and political thugs in some local government areas as capable of threatening the peaceful and credible conduct of the election, if not contained.
“In addition to this threat, there are also attempts by some political mercenaries to manipulate the process right from the pre-election stage.
“Despite the foregoing, the preparation for the Osun governorship election has seen a religious implementation of the electoral timeline by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),” she said
Mbamalu said that the group was also concerned about the uncouth and unguarded utterances of some political actors in the state in their efforts to woo voters.
“There is no doubt that these desperate utterances by major actors going into the election demonstrate a lack of caution and sportsmanship.
” This is capable of not just intimidating prospective voters, but also inflaming the political environment, if not checked.
“We call on these actors, especially the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to exercise restraint and advise their supporters to play by the rules,” she said.
Mbamalu commended INEC on its efforts on the PVC collection exercise for both old and new registrants.
She said, “However, we are concerned about the strategies deployed to ensure that the over 333,179 newly produced/printed Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) are collected by voters before July 16, 2022.
“The PVCs are currently being collected in the LGA offices and reports from the Watch The Vote Long Term Observers (WTV LTOs) reveal that prospective voters are crowding some INEC LGA offices with little hope of getting their PVCs before the election.”
Also speaking, Ezenwa Nwangwu, member of YIAGA’s Board, commended INEC for the implementation of the preparatory activities and called on them to provide better oversight over the activities ongoing at the local government levels.
Ezenwa urged security agencies working on the election to ensure that all personnel deployed are adequately trained and operate with all sense of responsibility, professionalism and neutrality.
“Security agencies should ensure the arrest and prosecution of all involved in any form of violence and voter inducement in the days leading to the election.
“Security agencies, especially the police, should publicise hotlines for citizens to make complaints, report incidents, or access information on the election.
He also said that the distribution of money, gifts and food items to induce voters by political parties and candidates featured throughout the pre-election campaign period as observed and reported by the group’s Long Term Observers( LTOs).
“This ugly trend is undermining the credibility of electoral mandates.
“During this reporting period, more events associated with voter inducement were reported in Ife Central, Ife North, Ifedayo, Ilesa West and Odo-Otin.
“Specifically, food items such as Garri and Beans were seen distributed to people as a campaign strategy in these local government areas,” he said.
