The governorship candidate of the Accord Party in the Ekiti State election, Opeyemi Falegan, has alleged widespread vote buying and operational lapses during Saturday’s governorship poll, describing the process as falling short of democratic standards.
Falegan made the allegations in a series of posts on his Facebook page shortly after casting his vote at his polling unit in Idofin, Ado-Ekiti.
According to the Accord Party candidate, he observed incidents of voter inducement at his polling unit, claiming that some individuals were allegedly offering voters money in exchange for support for one of the candidates in the election.
“I have just exercised my civic responsibility by casting my vote in the Ekiti State governorship election as a candidate at my polling unit in Idofin Ado-Ekiti,” he wrote.
Falegan alleged that voters were being offered as much as N20,000 to influence their choices at the ballot box, a development he said undermined the credibility of the electoral process.
“It was really sad to see vote buying everywhere at 20k per vote and security agents synergizing with those acts,” he stated.
The governorship candidate also accused security operatives of failing to effectively curb the alleged practice, claiming that some officials were not doing enough to maintain the integrity of the election.
He further alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) experienced operational difficulties, which he said affected the smooth conduct of voting.
Falegan argued that the developments witnessed during the exercise did not reflect the ideals of a credible democratic process and expressed disappointment over the conduct of the election.
He maintained that the integrity of the poll had been compromised by the reported incidents and questioned the overall credibility of the exercise.
In a separate post, he criticised voters who allegedly accepted monetary inducements, suggesting that exchanging votes for N20,000 amounted to sacrificing four years of governance for short-term gains.
“20k for 4 years. That is 5k per year. Ayeyintibajeeeee,” he wrote.
The allegations by the Accord Party candidate had not been independently verified as of the time of filing this report, while the Independent National Electoral Commission and security agencies had yet to officially respond to the claims.
Voting continued across the state on Saturday amid reports of varying voter turnout and isolated complaints from some polling units.
