Osun 2022: Police declare war on vote-buyers, deploy detectives

AHEAD of the Saturday governorship election in Osun State, the police and other security agencies, including the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, have declared war on vote-buyers and mapped out strategies to checkmate their activities.

To curb the malpractices during the poll, the security agencies have deployed detectives, including undercover operatives, to monitor the election and apprehend vote-buyers.

The deployment of police personnel will also be complemented by soldiers, the Civil Defence Corps, and the Amotekun Corps.

Vote-buying has been a blot on the integrity of recent elections in the country as voters are heavily induced by agents of political parties at the polling booths to skew the outcome of the polls in favour of the highest spender.

It was gathered that the security agencies had mapped out elaborate strategies aimed at preventing a repeat of the vote-buying incidents recorded during the Ekiti governorship poll as well as other elections in the recent past.

The EFCC had arrested some suspects, including party agents, for allegedly engaging in vote-buying during the June 18 governorship election in Ekiti.

Some of them were also said to have been caught with bags of money with a book containing details of voters of certain voting areas at a private residence.

Similarly, during the Peoples Democratic Party presidential primary held at Eagle Square, Abuja, there were widespread incidents of vote-buying by aspirants despite the presence of law enforcement officers.

But a team of EFCC operatives which monitored the convention failed to apprehend suspects.

The PUNCH gathered that the EFCC, which would also monitor the Osun poll on Saturday, would give no room for vote-buyers to operate.

However, the commission’s spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, could not be reached to confirm the number of men that would be deployed for the operation as he did not respond to calls on his phone. He had yet to reply to an SMS on the issue.