Vote buying rocks Kogi poll despite EFCC, ICPC deployment

Incidences of vote buying have been noticed in some polling units in the ongoing governorship election in Kogi State.

Our correspondent noticed that many voters were discussing how they had been promised 5,000 if they voted for a particular political party.

This is happening despite the deployment of officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to the state to tackle vote buying.

Daily Trust witnessed such interaction at a polling unit in Miami, around Adankolo area of the state where an agent of a particular party was seen seriously monitoring and trying to see who the voters voted before effecting payment at a nearby compound.

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Also the same situation was witnessed at Angwa Pawa area of Lokoja, where mainly women were called to a corner and given a certain amount even before they went to cast their votes.

An election observer told Daily Trust that one of the agents of a particular party approached him to vote for a party with a promise that he (observer) would be “handsomely rewarded” with N5,000, adding that because he was not wearing his tag as an observer he was taken for a voter.