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Edo 2024: APC, PDP, LP trade tackles as parties mobilise heavy cash for vote-buying

Published

5 months ago

September 15, 2024

It’s going to be cash for votes in Edo guber polls as major parties in the state mobilise cash to induce voters on Saturday.

It was gathered that the parties had started amassing “war chests” in a desperate bid to compromise voters.

A highly credible source said the Edo poll could set a new record for vote-buying in the history of elections in the country.

“A vote could go as high as between N15,000 and N20,000. There are plans by agents of some of the parties to mop up voter cards. How they intend to use the cards is what nobody knows. This is why the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission are being deployed for the election,” the source added.

Another source confirmed plans by the parties for what he called “heavy vote-buying”.

“I can confirm to you that the parties are ready to do whatever it takes to win this election and that includes paying as high as N20,000 for a vote.

“Unfortunately, doling out of gift items during campaigns has become entrenched in our political system with voters themselves mortgaging their votes for a ‘pot of pottage’. The voters are all partners in crime and what they fail to understand is that collecting gift items and cash from candidates and political parties makes them vulnerable.

“They will not have the moral justification to question the government if it fails in its responsibility to provide developmental projects in the state. After all, they (the electorate) have been paid upfront.

“Unless the Independent National Electoral Commission and security agencies work together to ensure that citizens are discouraged from selling their votes, this might be an election where the buying of votes becomes an all-time high,” the source added.

Another source urged INEC and security agencies to monitor the activities of parties and their agents on election day.

He said, “I have spoken to some members of two of the leading parties and they said that they are preparing to bring out cash to induce voters. So INEC and security agencies should be ready to combat this.”

is why they have not campaigned on issues but have instead relied on federal might.

“In contrast, the PDP is ready for this election and any future elections because we have done our homework and the people are with us. We also have the most credible candidate, and the incumbent Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has achieved a lot, which will swing votes to the PDP.

“The APC has demonstrated a significant propensity for violence and has even recruited some members of the Nigeria Police Force into their scheme. We also know they are planning to engage in heavy vote buying, which will be resisted.”

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, also said the APC had shown signs it was not committed to a free, fair, and credible election.

He said, “Since it became evident that the PDP candidate, Asue Ighodalo, is heading towards decisive victory, the APC and its candidate, Monday Okpebholo, have become desperate, resorting to violence and intimidation to undermine the will of Edo State voters. Reports indicate that the APC has set up a torture squad to abduct innocent Edo residents and take them to undisclosed locations.

This use of violence and intimidation reveals that the APC and its ineffective candidate are intimidated by Dr Asue Ighodalo’s growing popularity in Edo State.”

Ologunagba also claimed that the APC was importing thugs from Imo State to assist in an election manipulation scheme.

He noted that residents were prepared to use every lawful means to confront and resist attempts to disrupt the governorship election.

But the APC dismissed the allegations, insisting that Governor Obaseki was plotting to rig the September 21 governorship election.

The National Publicity Director of the party, Bala Ibrahim, said, “The PDP has made a name in rigging. But because their rigging mechanism has been uncovered and defeated, everything about them falls around rigging. Now that they can not unleash their rigging tactics, they have refused to sign the Peace Accord.

“They have seen that the people are ready to protect their votes and won’t allow rigging; this is why they are making noise all over the place about arrest, rigging, vote-buying and others. This is even a sign that the PDP has lost grip and the real meaning and intent of democracy.”

Ibrahim denied that the APC had plans to buy votes, adding that the party lacked the means.

Also, the Publicity Secretary of the APC in Edo State, Peter Uwadiae, said his party had no reason to engage in vote-buying.

He said, “We are not in the business of buying votes and we don’t have any reason to do such. We are not paying for votes. Buying of votes is an electoral offence and we cannot be seen to be committing an offence when we are planning to win the election.

“The only party that will buy votes is the one that feels it has not been accepted and this is a wrong step to be taken by any political party that means well for the Edo people.

“We are a decent party, we have done so well in our campaign and the people have shown that we are accepted and are ready to demonstrate that on election day.”

The Labour Party Public Relations Officer, Sam Uruopa, distanced his party from vote-buying, saying only the APC and PDP were known for such.

He said, “The APC and the PDP are the ones involved in vote-buying if what you heard is correct. That has been their practice, they also rig elections and are involved in other electoral malpractices. We are urging INEC and the security agencies to watch officials of these political parties closely, especially during the election.

“For the LP, we are not vote buyers and the people are with us. However, we are scared about this age-long practice they have been known for, that they have used to cripple this country and used to bastardise the electoral system.”

The Deputy Director General, Media, Asue/Ogie Campaign Management Council, Olu Martin, said parties that did not have popular candidates engaged in the practice.

He said, “I can’t speak for other parties but it is not unusual in a democracy to see people trying to induce voters, especially for parties who don’t have popular candidates.

“For us in the PDP, our fellowship is organic, our candidate is known, our manifesto is clear, we have endeared ourselves to the people. We even have people who are donating to us and ready to mobilise people to go out and vote. They are even ready to give us money to run the campaign. If you buy votes, you now become like a social contractor hoping to recoup what you have spent. It is the people that will suffer.”

EFCC, INEC warn parties

The spokesman for EFCC, Dele Oyewale, said vote buying is an economic crime and the commission would not tolerate it.

“We will not allow any kind of criminality in any form,” he stated.

“The same spirit and focus that we have been using to fight all other crimes, will be deployed be the commission to fight criminality including vote-buying.”

The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, said the electoral body had asked security agencies to go after vote buyers.

“Therefore, it will be a big mistake for any political party to think that its members can engage in vote-buying on election day because law enforcement agents will move against them. I would strongly advise anyone thinking of doing it to have a rethink. Apart from the fact that vote-buying is an electoral offence, it will also go against the spirit and letter of the Peace Accord that the political parties and their candidates signed only on Thursday here in Benin City,” he added.

Obaseki raises the alarm

Meanwhile, the Edo State Governor Obaseki, has alleged that INEC is working in cahoots with the APC to postpone the governorship poll on the eve of the election.

A statement on Friday said the governor spoke while addressing members and leaders of the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress.

Obaseki, who had earlier refused to sign the peace agreement, noted that the country’s democracy was at risk.

He said, “They plan to postpone the election on the eve of the election to destabilise us. But whenever they postpone the election, we will win the election. It will be a long fight but we know it’s a struggle.”

“APC has not offered us an alternative. They have not campaigned on any meaningful thing we can hold them onto. They don’t have any credible candidate but all they boast of is federal might. They say they will write the results and we can go to court. We will not go to court because they can’t write the results. If they write the results, they will meet the consequences.”

News

Court orders reinstatement of fired Lagos Assembly Clerk, Onafeko

Published

2 hours ago

February 24, 2025

Kayode Sanni-Arewa

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

The National Industrial Court sitting in Lagos has ordered the reinstatement of the fired Clerk of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Olalekan Onafeko.

The order follows an ex parte application to the Court made by Onafeko through his counsel, Yusuf Nurudeen, in a case he filed against Lagos State Government, Lagos State Civil Service Commission, Lagos State House of Assembly Service Commission, The Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Attorney-General of Lagos State and Mr. Ottun Babatunde.

Onafeko was the Clerk of the House before January 13 when Hon. Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa was removed as Speaker, with the then Deputy Speaker, Mojisola Lasbat Meranda elected as the new Speaker.

Obasa’s removal, a decision that sparked controversy within the Lagos House and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), also led to Onafeko losing his position, with Babatunde Ottun appointed as his acting replacement.

The claimant in the suit marked: NICN/LA/23/2025 sought for an interim injunction restraining the six defendants from parading any individual including Babatunde as the clerk pending the hearing of the motion on notice for Interlocutory injunction already filed in the suit.

Granting the application, Justice M. N. Esowe in an ex parte order directed that Babatunde should cease to parade himself as Clerk

Esowe ordered that that what was in place in terms of the person in the saddle of the Clerk Office prior to the crisis rocking the House of Assembly should now prevail.

“That both parties shall maintain the peace and status quo ante bellum until the motion on notice is heard and determined,” Esowe ordered.

The judge slated the hearing of the motion on notice for March 3, 2024.

News

Worldwide Prayers For ‘Critically’ Sick Pope Francis

Published

2 hours ago

February 23, 2025

Kayode Sanni-Arewa

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

Pope Francis spent his tenth day in hospital Sunday as Catholics around the world prayed for his recovery, the day after the Vatican warned the 88-year-old’s condition was “critical”.

The Argentine pontiff, who is being treated for double pneumonia, suffered a prolonged asthma-style attack on Saturday and required blood transfusions for a low platelet count.

On Sunday morning the Holy See said “the night passed peacefully, the pope rested” — indicating no repeat of the crisis the previous day, Vatican sources said.

But Francis, who had part of a lung removed when he was a young man, is still receiving oxygen through a tube in his nostrils in the papal suite at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.

In a message published Sunday but written in the past few days, the Jesuit thanked hospital staff and said he had confidence in his treatment.

“I am confidently continuing my hospitalisation at the Gemelli Hospital, carrying on with the necessary treatment — and rest is also part of the therapy!” he said.

“I ask you to pray for me,” he concluded in the text published in lieu of his weekly Sunday Angelus, which he normally delivers from a window overlooking St Peter’s Square.

People pray at the feet of a statue of John Paul II outside the Gemelli hospital where Pope Francis is hospitalized for pneumonia in Rome on February 23, 2025. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)

Francis, who has been head of the Catholic Church since 2013, was admitted on February 14 initially with bronchitis, but his condition has deteriorated since then.

In its evening update Saturday, the Vatican warned his “condition continues to be critical, therefore the pope is not out of danger”.

It said Francis was alert and “spent the day in an armchair even if he was suffering more than” the day before.

It said he had a “prolonged asthmatic respiratory crisis, which also required the application of high-flow oxygen”.

Daily blood tests also “showed thrombocytopenia, associated with anaemia, which required the administration of blood transfusions”, it added.

Thrombocytopenia is a condition that occurs when the platelet count in the blood is too low, which can cause trouble stopping bleeding.

Blood or platelet transfusions, delivered via an intravenous (IV) line, are given to people who are either bleeding heavily or at very high risk of bleeding, according to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“The pope gets worse,” headlined Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper on Sunday, while La Repubblica described it as the “darkest day” at the Vatican.

Well-wishers have been leaving candles outside the Gemelli since Francis was admitted, and a special mass was planned for Sunday evening in Rome.

“I am praying for him, for his health, because he is a special person for all of us,” Italian teacher Ilde Zito told AFP at the hospital.

Prayers and messages of solidarity also came in from among the almost 1.4 billion Catholics across the globe, alongside other Christians and world leaders.

In the cathedral of Buenos Aires, where Francis was once archbishop, TV screens at the entrance showed images of then Jorge Bergoglio’s good works, and the priest held a special mass.

“He is strong, he has always been strong, but there is nature. I know he is very ill and old. I hope he recovers, but it makes me sad,” Hector Armando Diaz, 76, a retired sales clerk, told AFP there.

Across the world in Iraq’s northern city of Mosul, a former bastion of the Islamic State group that Francis visited in 2021, at least a dozen churches also held prayers for him.

“This is the least we can do to express our solidarity, love, and appreciation for this great person,” said university professor Adnan Hadi.

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, offered her hopes on social media for a speedy recovery for the “great humanist” Francis, the first pope from the Americas.

Francis’s continued hospitalisation has sparked huge concern about his health but also speculation about whether he might step down.

He has always left the door open to following his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who in 2013 became the first pope since the Middle Ages to resign.

But he has repeatedly said it was not the time.

The pope maintains a punishing work schedule. He carried out a mammoth 12-day tour to the Asia-Pacific in September, but has suffered increasing health issues.

He underwent colon surgery in 2021 and an operation for a hernia two years later. He is overweight and has constant hip and knee pain, which forces him to use a wheelchair.

AFP

News

Liverpool thrash Man City, Go 11 Points Clear

Published

2 hours ago

February 23, 2025

Kayode Sanni-Arewa

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

Liverpool took a big step to winning the Premier League, crushing an uninspiring Manchester City in a showdown on Sunday.

Mohamed Salah stole the show, scoring one and providing an assist to send Liverpool 11 points clear at the top of the table although they have played a game more.

The Egyptian opened the scoring with his 30th goal of the season before setting up Dominik Szoboszlai to double the lead before half-time.

Just days after exiting the Champions League to Real Madrid, this was another sobering defeat for the dethroned English champions, who are now 20 points adrift of the leaders.

So often during Pep Guardiola’s glorious reign, Liverpool have come up just short in English football’s great rivalry of recent years.

However, their time to match Manchester United’s record of 20 English top-flight titles now appears just months away in Arne Slot’s first season in charge.

Arsenal’s shock 1-0 home defeat to West Ham on Saturday had eased the pressure on Liverpool, that had built after dropping points in two of their last three games at Everton and Aston Villa.

A trip to the Etihad has for so long been the stiffest test of all, but City’s defensive frailties were easily exposed and they also badly missed the presence of the injured Erling Haaland in attack.

Liverpool, by contrast, had their talisman fit and firing as Salah took his staggering tally this season to 25 goals and 16 assists in 27 Premier League appearances.

However, their time to match Manchester United’s record of 20 English top-flight titles now appears just months away in Arne Slot’s first season in charge.

Arsenal’s shock 1-0 home defeat to West Ham on Saturday had eased the pressure on Liverpool, that had built after dropping points in two of their last three games at Everton and Aston Villa.

Liverpool, by contrast, had their talisman fit and firing as Salah took his staggering tally this season to 25 goals and 16 assists in 27 Premier League appearances.

The Egyptian fired the visitors in front on 14 minutes thanks to a brilliantly executed set-piece routine.

Alexis Mac Allister’s corner was flicked by Szoboszlai into Salah’s path and his shot deflected off Nathan Ake past the despairing dive of Ederson.

At the other end, City’s own Egyptian international showed his ability to finish, but Omar Marmoush had strayed offside before being played in by Phil Foden.

City winger Jeremy Doku was skipping past Trent Alexander-Arnold at will, yet the Belgian consistently failed to deliver a telling cross or shot.

Salah was not so forgiving as he raced onto a long ball over the top and teed up Szoboszlai to wrong-foot Ederson.

The final outcome could have been much more humiliating for City had Liverpool had been as accurate on the counter-attack after the break.

Curtis Jones had a third goal ruled out by a VAR review for offside after Szoboszlai just failed to time his run through the heart of the City defence.

Ederson was forced into a stunning save from Luis Diaz and only a brilliant last-ditch tackle from Abdukodir Khusanov denied Szoboszlai a second.

Marmoush scored a hat-trick in last weekend’s 4-0 win over Newcastle and remained a lively threat as he flashed another effort across the front of Alisson Becker’s goal.

But City lacked the end product to make nearly 70 percent possession count.

Despite an eighth league defeat of the season, Guardiola’s men remain in fourth and will be confident of securing their place in the Champions League next season with a top-five finish likely to be enough.

However, after an unprecedented run of four consecutive titles, City look like yesterday’s team with Liverpool now champions in waiting.