The Centre for Democracy and Development (Yiaga Africa) has commended the peaceful conduct and early commencement of voting in the Osun governorship election but raised concerns over alleged vote buying and intimidation of election observers.
The Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, said voting had commenced early in most of the polling units monitored by the organisation across the state.
Speaking at Ward 04, Unit 10, Ataoja, Osogbo, on Saturday, Itodo said voting had started in 79 per cent of the polling units where Yiaga deployed observers, while accreditation and voting had commenced in 97 per cent of polling units visited by 9:30 am.
He described the early commencement as commendable, particularly against the backdrop of logistical challenges faced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) following a late court judgment.
“In the polling units we have visited, the process has been seamless and peaceful. People are present and security agencies have also been deployed to the polling units,” Itodo said.
Vote Buying Raises Concern
However, Itodo identified vote buying as one of the major issues observed during the election.
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“The major issue we have observed across the state so far is the incidence of vote buying. In some of the polling units we visited, we observed voters openly revealing how they voted. In other cases, voters did not reveal their choices,” he said.
He said Yiaga Africa was concerned about the development but maintained that the election had generally remained peaceful.
Itodo also warned that the collation of results would be a critical stage of the electoral process and urged stakeholders to ensure that the peaceful conduct was maintained.
“We are now approaching a critical stage of the election, which is the collation of results. That is where we are very concerned that things could go wrong,” he said.
Observers allegedly intimidated
The Yiaga Africa director also raised concerns over alleged intimidation of election observers by party agents.
He said observers were important to the credibility of the electoral process and should be protected by security agencies.
Itodo disclosed that one of Yiaga Africa’s partner organisations reported that one of its observers was allegedly intimidated and chased away by a party agent shortly after arriving at a polling unit.
He called on security agencies to investigate such reports and ensure observers could perform their duties without interference.
Itodo further urged political parties, candidates, security agencies and other stakeholders to maintain peace during voting and the collation of results, noting that the election followed a highly competitive campaign period marked in some areas by violence and inflammatory rhetoric.
Source: The Guardian Nigeria
Rafiyat Sadiq is a political, justice, and human rights reporter with Pinnacle Daily, known for fearless reporting and impactful storytelling. At Pinnacle Daily, she brings clarity and depth to issues shaping governance, democracy, and the protection of citizens’ rights.