▪︎ ICPC grabs vote buyers; President displays vote
It was tragedy that first greeted the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) as its chairman in Abuja, Mr. Sunday Zaka, lost his life in a ghastly motor accident as he returned to his house at the close of a meeting at about 3.00 a.m. hours before elections commenced.
His security aides also died in the accident on the route between the city and Kuje satellite town.
Elsewhere in Abuja, voters defied the heavy downpour in the first major, windy rain that tore through parts of the territory to cast their votes.
Voters resorted to shouting the name of the Labour Party’s presidential candidate as the windy rain forced many off the queue into the shade of classrooms in Kuchigoro Primary School.
At press time, the party was way ahead in the results counted at two of the polling units there. Votes were still on at the third – the parent one, which was broken into four others on account of congestion.
An ad-hoc staff of INEC was badly beaten after he was caught caught thumb printing ballot papers after declaring that that the polling unit in the primary school in Lugbe did not have ballot papers.
From Daura, Katsina State, where President Muhammadu Buhari voted and openly displayed his vote for the presidential candidate of his party, Senator Bola Tinubu, to the chagrin of many on social media, who commented it was against the Electoral Act that governs election.
A similar display by Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, was met with mockery as it showed his vote was invalid, having crossed the bottom line of the APC box.
Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was seen combining over the late arrival of voting materials to her voting unit.
There were reports of the aides of Governor Nasir el Rufai been caught with a stash of new Naira notes in a hotel frequented by one of the contestants known to be close to him.
At a polling unit in Lagos, an APC agent was heard threatening trouble for those who did not vote for Tinubu, while a video showed voters locked out of a point unit. Curiously, a uniformed policeman was smack behind the agent and there was no report of an arrest
The Labour Party is already crying foul over what it says is going on in Lagos where it claims votes in some parts of the state are not being uploaded.
Its National Chairman, Barrister Julius Abure alleged that the results of the presidential elections collated in various polling units in the state were not being uploaded to the Central Server.
According to Julius Abure, the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in alleged connivance with the security agencies are claiming that the BVAS have suddenly developed fault and therefore cannot function.
The chairman said that information from the party’s field men has it that in places like Agege, Kosofe, Oshodi-Isolo, Surulere, and Ibeju Lekki, amongst others where results shows that Labour Party won convincingly, the INEC officials claim that the BVAS suddenly developed fault when it concerns uploading results of the presidential election.
According to him, “Information reaching me has it that in Lagos, they have refused to upload the results for the presidential election, they have uploaded that of the Senate and House of Representatives but for the presidential, they have refused. And they are using the police to drive our agents and supporters out of the place. And they said that they have firm instruction from INEC headquarters not to upload.
“For example, in Kosofe, they put the collation centre in a Local Government Area Headquarters. The place is sorrounded by APC and people are afraid of their life. They are not uploading, they said that they have been giving instruction to insist that the BVAS is faulty. And most of the places we won, but they have refused to upload.
“As I speak, APC officials are in Yaba office of INEC (allegedly) negotiating with the officials. What I have said now is happening in Agege, Kosofe, Oshodi-Isolo, Surulere, we have this situation all over. In Ibeju Lekki, our local government chairman who attempted to stop them was arrested by the police.”
Abure said that similar situation is playing out across the collation centres in Delta state.
He however called on INEC to ensure that only genuine and verifiable results generated from the various polling units should be uploaded.
He also called on the police to help democracy to work and should resist the lure by the politicians to mar the gains of democracy by refusing to be used to deny Nigerians their choice of leaders.
Meanwhile, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) says it has arrested nine persons for vote buying in Osun, Ondo, Borno, Akwa Ibom and Sokoto States during the Presidential and National Assembly Elections on Saturday.
Detailing the list of those arrested, the spokeswoman of the commission, Mrs. Azuka Ogugua, said four vote buyers were arrested by the Osun State Office of the ICPC, two persons were arrested by the Sokoto State Office while one person each was arrested by the Ondo, Akwa Ibom and Borno Offices of the anti-graft agency.
The four vote buyers arrested in Osun State are Adewale Teslim, 32 years; Yemi Adebiyi, 42 years; Shake Idris, 36 years, and Emiola Joseph Oluwole, 69 years. The suspects, who are in Osun State Office custody, were found with documents containing lists of names, phone numbers and account details of voters during the election in the State.
Operatives of the Commission retrieved a list of names and phone numbers of voters from Adewale Teslim at Polling Unit 07, Ward 07, Ile Aganna in Olorunda Local Government Area of Osun State.
The officers also recovered a list of people who had voted with their phone numbers and account details from Yemi Adebiyi at Polling Unit 06, Ward 04 at Ikirun Junction, Ikirun while Shake Idris was arrested at Polling Unit 6, Ward 10, Ofatedo area of Osun State with a note book containing over 100 names and account numbers.
The anti-corruption agency also recovered a note book containing a list of voters’ names and account details from Mrs. Afolabi Adijat at Ward 5, Polling Unit 04 of Ansar-ud-deen Mosque area of Olorunda Local Government. The agency’s officers, however, couldn’t arrest Mrs. Afolabi Adijat due to the volatility of the area and insufficient armed personnel.
The Ondo State Office of the ICPC arrested one Mrs. Idowu-Yemi Omolere at Polling Unit 12, Ward 12 behind Dada Estate Police State in connection with the distribution of recharge cards to voters.
The ICPC personnel recovered 24 pieces of N500 recharge cards, a list of voters and their phone numbers as well as a techno phone.
The Borno State Office of the ICPC arrested one Garba Bahausa at the Bulunkutu Ward in possession of four PVCs and the sum of Forty Nine Thousand Naira (N49,000). The suspect distributed the money, food items and 20 wrappers.
In the course of his interrogation, Bahausa confessed that the money was given to him by a lawmaker to distribute to voters.
The Akwa Ibom State Office of the ICPC arrested a woman, Mrs. Idara Umoren, for collating the names and account details of voters suspected to have voted for her preferred candidate.
Umoren was arrested at the Signature Hotel Polling Unit on Plot 48G Line, Ewet Housing Estate, Akwa Ibom.
In Sokoto State, ICPC operatives arrested two persons – Hassan Muhammad and Nafisa Sani – for vote buying at the Rabah Local Government Area of Sokoto.
Hassan Muhammad was caught in possession of signed tickets which were given to voters that voted for his party. The ticket enabled the voters to be given women wrappers and bags of rice. Nafisa Sani was intercepted while giving wrappers to voters at a polling unit in Rabah Local Government Area of Sokoto.
The ICPC Team also monitored the election in the Federal Capital Territory where it observed that INEC officials exhibited pronounced slackness in the administration of the elections in Lambata and Yebu Polling Units of Kwali Area Council.
Accreditation and voting were yet to commence in many polling units of the Kwali Area Council due to inadequate supply of electoral materials.
The ICPC operatives visited the INEC Office in Kwali Area Council to compel the officers in charge to provide voting materials which aided the commencement of the exercise in the area council.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, SAN, has commended the officers of the ICPC State Offices and the Headquarters for diligently monitoring the Presidential and National Assembly elections across the Federation, thereby curtailing vote buying by some representatives of political parties.
He directed the State Offices to carry out a detailed investigation of all those arrested for acts of corruption during the election on Saturday.
The Commission, it will be recalled, had on Friday taken into custody one Hassan Ahmad who was in possession of the sum of two million naira cash in both old and new currencies in Bauchi State.
Ahmad was arrested by the Troops of 33 Artillery Brigade Operation Safe Conduct deployed to Alkaleri in Bauchi State and handed over to the Bauchi State Office of the anti-corruption agency.