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To achieve the desired effect, it is the opinion of this newspaper that the voter who is so hungry as to sell his or her birth right is not exonerated. Having taken the lead in this renewed fight, we would urge the other stakeholders in the process, including the judiciary and police to follow suit. Nevertheless, we commend the EFCC boss and the Illorin zonal command for their effort just as we support the new fight against vote buyers. For unless the root cause is properly addressed, new branches will continue to grow no matter how many are cut down. Also, we would encourage them to extend their arrests to high-profile sponsors. This was clearly part of the fall out of INEC’s attempt to address the vote buying and selling menace which led to an Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Elections Security, ICCES, by co-opting EFCC, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Commission, ICPC in the fight.Īlthough the arrests pale in significance when compared with the large number of alleged perpetrators, it was a bold start all the same. The case was adjourned to November 21 for hearing.

He said the surety must not be below grade level 13 in the state civil service. However, the presiding Judge, Justice Mathias Agboola, granted the defendants bail in the sum of N2 million with one surety each in like sum. The suspects were arrested at Polling Unit 002, Ward 2, Ababu, Isale Osun, Oshogbo except for Abiodun that was nabbed at Unit 2, Isale Agbara, Oshogbo. The defendants were alleged to have conspired to trade vote for cash and thereby committed offences contrary to the law. The EFCC, Ilorin Zonal Command, arraigned Adeyemo Abiodun, Abidogun Ismail, Jimoh Kazeem and Yekini Abiodun, for offences, contrary to the Electoral Act 2022. The recent arrest and arraignment of vote buyers by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) under the watch of its chairman Abdulrasheed Bawa brings a vista of hope that this menace won’t continue unchecked.įour persons arrested for alleged vote buying during the July 16 governorship election in Osun State were recently arraigned by the EFCC. Still, the security agencies are unrelenting in their bid to ensure that the system is thoroughly cleansed. No scenario captures how endemic this practice has become than the brazen insistence of these political miscreants on being video-recorded while embarking on their illicit acts.

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The situation was so bad that political agents, cut across party lines, went about this reprehensible action in the full glare of security agents. While inducements have long been a part of the nation’s political evolution, never in recent years has the country witnessed the crude and brash resort to deployment of raw cash by agents of desperate politicians to win elections. In recent election cycles, especially the off- season polls, the polity has witnessed heightened vote for cash situations. The evil forces, having been defeated in their ballot box snatching antics and other crude systems, have since become more daring in the use of inducement as a tool to undermine the will of the people. However, just as the forces of good are working to ensure that the electoral system is increasingly stress- free, efficient, credible and fair, the forces of evil are bent on sabotaging any effort that would guarantee that the will of the people prevail and that the right caliber of people are elected to govern. With it, the country has measurably evolved from the menace of ballot box snatching and other forms of electoral malpractices that had stymied the development of democracy in the country. The saving grace, in our opinion, is the willingness of the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to deploy more technology in the conduct of elections. With the improvement on the integrity of the electoral system comes a fresh challenge posed by enemies of democracy who are determined to undermine the credibility of the ballot box.

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