FLASHBACK: LAF’s spokesperson accused APC of spending N47m to win Ondo assembly election

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the Akure South/North Federal Constituency, Olumuyiwa Adu, trended for the wrong reasons on Wednesday over stories he shared over N234m for voters across the 753 polling units in his constituency.

Purportedly writing on behalf of his media team, Olakunle Alade-Fayehun, said the PDP candidate spent between N311,000 and N320,000 per polling unit for “logistics”.

He said Adu did not lose the election because of lack of funds, but because he was up against federal might.

While Adu has come out to disown Alade-Fayehun, claiming he was not speaking on behalf of his media team, the case of vote buying is not new in Ondo state politics.

On the election day, Premium Times had reported that Adu’s main opponent, Lawson Alade popularly known as LAF, was almost beaten up by voters in his polling unit – Gbogi Isinkan II, Ward 3, Unit 14 – for alleged vote buying.

A civil society group, YIAGA Africa, had also while submitting its report, said the 2020 Ondo State governorship election was marred by vote-buying.

LAF’s spokesperson victim of alleged vote buying

The spokesperson of LAF’s campaign, Ebenezer Adeniyan, had also on this day three years ago accused the APC of vote buying.

Adeniyan who was contesting the 2019 Ondo State House of Assembly constituency 1 election against incumbent Tolu Borokini, alleged that the APC spent between N47.1 million and N78.5 million to secure victory for Borokini across the 157 polling units in Akure South state constituency 1.

Adeniyan, who was then a member of the Social Democratic Party, where he contested the election, accused the APC of “deploying between N300,000 and N500,000 to each polling unit on the eve of the election.

“The House of Assembly election held in Akure South Constituency 1 yesterday was a dent on our democracy. It was the worst election I have ever witnessed in my adult life.

“The ruling All Progressives Congress conspired with the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies to engage in open purchase of votes across all the polling units in the constituency.

“The APC had deployed between N300,000 and N500,000 to each polling unit on the eve of the election. Unable to compete, this forced some opposition parties to scale back on their own logistics for the election,” Adeniyan wrote in a Facebook post published March 10, 2019.

“In many of the units, the vote-buying was effectively supervised by security agents and in some, security agents participated in the distribution of the money. This is a setback for whatever gains we have made in our electoral process in the last decade.

“In some units, agents of opposition parties that did not bribe security agents were chased out of the polling areas, while voting cubicles were left in the hands of agents of APC to monitor voting pattern of induced voters.

“That INEC and security agencies cannot curb open vote buying has simply put the nail on the coffin of democracy in Nigeria. It is unfortunate that the only way to win election in Nigeria today is to buy votes,” he added.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had at different occasion, threatened to prosecute anyone involved in vote buying.