Ekiti Polls: Despite Documented Evidence, INEC Denies Vote Buying in Gubernatorial Elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied that vote buying took place in the June 18 gubernatorial election in Ekiti State.

The commission testified Thursday before the Petition Court for the Election of Governor, in connection with the complaint filed by Social Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate Segun Oni.

Mr. Oni is challenging the election result won by All Progressives Congress candidate Biodun Oyebanji, alleging gross irregularities and vote buying.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Adeniran Tella, who was represented in court by the Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Commission's Ekiti office, Yemitope Aina, said Commission officials, who monitored the election, complied with the provisions of the electoral law and the electoral guidelines in the conduct of the ballot.

Mr. Aina noted that the Commission was not aware of any incidents of vote buying as alleged by the petitioners and that there was no inflation of the numbers in any of the units where the election took place. unrolled.

Mr. Aina, while being cross-examined by counsel for the Respondents, further asserted that the total number of votes cast and collated by the electoral agency in the Ekiti Governorate poll corresponded to the number of accredited voters .

The witness testified that the Bimodal Voter Authentication System (BVAS) machines used to accredit voters worked well and flawlessly and had not been compromised in any way during the conduct of the gubernatorial elections. 'Ekiti, adding that there was no manual collection or blind registration at any of the voting units.

Mr. Oyebanji is the first defendant, while APC (second), Mai Mala Buni (third), INEC (fourth) and Deputy Governor-elect Monisade Afuye (fifth) respectively.

The INEC representative who was cross-examined by the plaintiffs' attorney, Owoseni Ajayi, also presented the court with election documents and materials as evidence.

He said he didn't bring the BVAS machine and used unused ballots because they weren't part of what he was supposed to bring by the subpoena .

The witness explained that the documents and materials requested by the petitioners were not given to them in time because they did not pay the prescribed fees. He stated that the documents and materials were made available to them only after paying the fees on September 8, hence the publication of exhibits A13, A14, A15 and A16 and that the INEC was not therefore not responsible for the alleged delay.

He also rejected the petitioners' claims that they were not authorized to inspect election materials, saying the Commission had authorized the inspection of materials.

Some of the documents brought to the Tribunal by the witness included Forms EC8D, EC8E and EC8C for all local government areas, EC8B for the 177 registration areas, a list of local government areas and filing officers for registration areas, a letter from the law firm Owoseni Ajayi and Associates, Directory of Polling Units, BVAS Report on Accredited Voters in Ekiti State and Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) collected polling station by polling station.

Others were APC letter on submission of INEC, EC9 forms and issuance of certified true copies (CTC) of documents to Owoseni Ajayi and Associates by INEC, list of elected working committee members APC national and national executives, serial numbers of ballot papers Documents as communicated to election officials and list of ad hoc staff deployed for the election.

However, there was a slight drama when Mr. Ajayi, after concluding his questioning of the witness, sought to produce the election materials that the witness had brought to court, but he opposed all the lawyers of the respondents on the ground that he had exhausted all the time allowed to him to cross-examine the witness.

Despite his pleas, the president of the court, Wilfred Kpochi, decided that he could only produce the documents during the reconsideration so as not to be accused of excess.

"The only window available is during the reconsideration, if we do otherwise, it will amount to overindulgence and we don't want to be perceived as biased," the president said.

The court further held that the petitioners' request through Mr. Ajayi amounted to "reversing and it is hereby denied". The decision cleared the way for counsel for other respondents to cross-examine the witness.

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