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AHEAD of Ekiti gubernatorial election on Saturday, the Justice Development and Peace Maker Centre (JDPMC), Osogbo Catholic Diocese, has appealed to electorate in the state to resist financial inducement.
JDPMC said this in its Campaign Finance Monitoring Pre-Election statement for Ekiti election, signed by its General Coordinator, Rev. Fr. Peter Akinkunmi, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Osogbo.
According to the statement, the very high rate of voter inducement observed in the pre-election atmosphere in Ekiti indicated that the issue of vote buying as far as the election is concerned, is unlikely to be a departure from the outrageous trend of vote buying and financial inducements observed in previous elections .
It said that during the general campaign atmosphere by political parties, JDPMC deployed 16 campaign finance trackers to all the local government areas of the state to provide real-time information of the dynamics of campaign expenditures of all contesting political parties, their candidates and supporters.
The statement said that parallel expenses tracking method by JDPMC in the last 30 days of the campaign period for the election considered to be the peak period of campaign activities, observed an unprecedented vitality in the activities of stakeholders especially the political parties, INEC, CSOs and the media.
“Pre-election incidents observed in Ekiti included various forms and degrees of financial and material inducement of voters during door-to-door campaigns, cash and online fund transfers to the tune of N20,000 were shared at rallies and town hall meetings.
“Distribution of fuel to commercial cyclists (Okada riders), other materials such as generators and motorcycles were used for voter inducement by the major contesting political parties.
“The outlook of campaign activities ahead of the Ekiti 2022 elections, when the preeminence of voter inducement is considered, fitted it as a furtherance of the generally observed trend of voter inducement by the major political parties at all major elections.
“As technological innovations, developments in legislations and observed behavioral changes continue to improve the electoral processes in Nigeria, there have been significant decline in the capacity of many electoral malpractices to undermine the credibility of elections.
“However, inducement of voters has not only remained resistant to transformative initiatives so far, the rate of its growth has assumed a scandalous and unacceptable dimension between the last four years when Ekiti held its last governorship election in 2018 and the present.
“We therefore call on all people of goodwill across Ekiti State to resist voter inducement on election day and vote candidates of their choice in good conscience for the sake of the common future of the state and of our country Nigeria”, the statement read.
The statement, however, commended the INEC for introduction of Biomodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) with the current perception of its capacity to make votes count and reduce significantly the tendency of contestants and their supporters to tamper with election results.
“It said this was observed to have enlightened extraordinary passion, enthusiasm and zeal of contestants and their supporters to rally the support of voters”, it said. (NAN)
– Jun. 17 2022 @ 17:27 GMT | C.E
Tags: INEC Justice Development and Peace Maker Centre (JDPMC) Rev. Fr. Peter Akinkunmi
