An official from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been apprehended by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) during the Imo State governorship election for having a large sum of money.
News360 Info learnt that the INEC staff was caught at Polling Unit 005, Township Primary School, Ikenegbu 1, in the Owerri Municipal LGA.
The money was allegedly offered to the official by an unnamed party for the purpose of vote-buying, a common issue that undermines the credibility of elections in Nigeria.
To combat electoral fraud, including vote buying and selling, the ICPC and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) dispatched officers to monitor off-cycle elections in Imo, Kogi, and Bayelsa.
It was reported earlier that party agents in the ongoing off-cycle election in Kogi State resorted to offering financial incentives to voters in Lokoja to secure their votes for their respective candidates.
The said agents were reportedly positioned at a distance of approximately 500 meters from the polling units and handed out cash to voters in exchange for their support. The amount of money given to each voter varied between N3,000 to N5,000, depending on their individual characteristics and bargaining skills.
Meanwhile, the governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Bayelsa State, Udengs Eradiri, alleged earlier that vote buying was ongoing in the off-cycle election in the state.
According to him, the party in power used the state’s resources to buy votes.
It has been reported that Eradiri asserted shortly after exercising his civic responsibility at his polling unit at Ward 10, Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa, at about 9:10 am.
The LP candidate said the money to be used for education is being squandered for vote buying.
“The state resources are everywhere shared. The money that should have been used for schools, education, and the economy of the state is thrown around to buy votes. And sometimes I wonder how people sit on a seat they did not win…,”
