Anambra election: Cleen Foundation observes massive vote trading

Tue, Nov 9, 2021
By editor
2 MIN READ

Politics

By Benprince Ezeh

…says police welfare package for the election was poor

ELECTION Security Support Centre, ESSC of CLEEN Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, NGO, has said that it observed disturbing incidents of vote-trading across the state in the Anambra state governorship election held on Saturday, November 6.

In their post-election statement released on Monday, November 8, in Abuja, the organisation said that “massive vote-buying by some leading political parties was too much and that is not good for democracy.”

It cited the instance of what happened at Polling Unit 7, 8, 17, & 18, ward 3, Awka South, where a leading political party induced voters with the sum of N1,000 and food.

“Similarly, at polling unit 17, ward 15, Ogbaru LGA, we observed inducement of voters with the sum of N2, 000 per vote. At Polling Unit 4, ward 2, Njijoka LGA, party agents were observed infringing on voters’ choices through massive vote-buying of votes,” they said.

According to Cleen, the same incident happened in other polling units, which attracted many voters.

“At Polling Unit 10 and 11, Ward 2, Dunukofia LGA, we observed massive vote-buying by three leading political parties with sums that ranged from  N3, 000 – N10, 000 which interestingly led to increase in the number of voters at the polling unit.

“At polling unit 008, Oganiru Primary School, Ward 8, Idemili South LGA, a leading political party was observed inducing voters with N3, 000. Money exchanged hands for votes in this process,” it said. 

On security, the foundation said that security personnel deployed to the state especially the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, were poorly remunerated.

“For instance, while police inspectors and Senior Police Officers, SPO, were paid N67, 000 while the rank  and file were paid N32, 500 as allowance for policing the polls.

“We observed that a lot of policemen were found without hospitable accommodation. This portrays a wrong impression and brings to fore the issue of welfare package for police officers which has been a recurring challenge in previous elections,” it said.

Tags: