The Electoral Institute (TEI) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has that with all the indicators, the early warning signs indicate that there will be violence and it cannot be over looked.
The TEI Chairman, Prince Solomon Adedeji Soyebi, said this on the sideline of a Round Table and Policy Dialogue on Kogi election theme “A successful Governorship Elections in Kogi: What are the Critical Issues?” organized by the institute on Monday in Abuja.
He also said that vote buying in November 16 governorship election in Kogi State would be discouraged by concealing all form of evidence of the votes cast by the electorates.
He said the event was INEC’s commitment to continuous strategic engagement with stakeholders on issues central to elections, electoral process, governance and democratic practices.
Soyebi said that already, there were reports of violence and anticipated vote buying in the state, but the commission was working to curb all of them.
“What we will do is to discourage potential vote buying by increasing the sanctity of the vote, if you vote now, it is difficult for another person to see it. So, where there is no evidence of voting, there will be no corresponding money coming after it. We have said it consistently, vote buying is more of a criminal offence than an electoral offence, the security apparatus have been dealing with this and would continue to deal with it,”he said.
Speaking earlier, the TEI Director-General Dr. Sa’ad Idris, said the policy dialogue was a deliberate attempt of the commission through its research and training organ to interrogate by the way of policy dialogue, the commission’s preparedness for elections.
According to him, the aim was to also interrogate to know areas that required urgent attention for instant improvement to ensure a successful credible and transparent governorship election in Kogi.
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