Yiaga Africa has alleged that in Sarkin Mudu polling unit (016) in Giade LGA of Bauchi, PDP agents were sighted bribing accredited voters with N1,000, a wrapper and a pack of spaghetti to some voters in exchange for votes.
Yiaga Africa said it received 15 confirmed reports of vote buying across eight states as vote buying took different turns during the voting processes in some states.
A board member ,Yiaga Africa, Mr Ezenwa Nwagwu said this during the organisation’s press conference on its midday situation report on the March 18th governorship and State Assembly elections in Abuja.
Nwagwu explained that similar report of the distribution of wrappers, N2,000 and a pack of spaghetti to voters was received from PU 006 Rangan Ward, Warji LGA of Bauchi.
Party agents for the APC and PDP party reportedly distributed food, cash and alcoholic drinks to some voters in exchange for votes in Apir market square 1, Makurdi, Benue state.
He said a case of bribery was reported in PU O6 Ward 05 Isoko North, Delta State, where INEC officials received cash gift from the APC party agent in the polling unit.
Nwagwu said that Yiaga Africa Watching The Vote deployed the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) methodology to observe the governorship elections in Benue, Delta and Kano states.
He said that this involved the deployment of 900 stationary observers to a representative randomly selected sample of 300 polling units for each of the states, and 97 roving observers in the three states.
According to him, Yiaga Africa deployed 517 stationary observers and 33 roving observers in the other 25 States to observe the governorship elections with roving observers in 609 Local Government Areas to capture critical incidents .
Nwagwu said that Yiaga Africa noted a marked improvement in the management of election logistics across the states as polling units opened early resulting in early commencement of accreditation and voting.
He said that although , reports of logistics hiccups were received by Yiaga Africa in some polling units and secrecy of the ballots compromised.
“This resulted in a protest at the INEC office in the LGA. Incidences of voter intimidation and harassment were also recorded in some polling units in Kano and Lagos state.
“These acts of voter suppression is an assault on constitutional right to vote;Yiaga Africa hopes INEC and security agencies will take prompt actions to address these issues to inspire public confidence in the credibility of the election.”
