Ekiti election: NSCDC disperses vote buyers

The operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have dispersed some people inducing voters with money in the Ajilosun area of Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.

The crowd was dispersed by a team of NSCDC operatives, led by acting Deputy Commandant, Haruna Muhammed, at Mobil filling station, opposite St. Michael’s School in the state capital.

A resident of the area, Mr Musa Faruk, said some suspected political agents had been distributing between N10,000 and N12,000 to the voters who agreed to vote for their preferred governorship candidate.

Faruk added that at polling units one and two of ward four at St. Michael Nursery and Primary School, the agents would have observed who voters had voted for before giving them the money.

Another voter, Veronica Famigun, who was in the midst of the crowd, said vote-buying had been ongoing for hours, expressing happiness over the way in which those engaging in the act were dispersed by NSCDC operatives.

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She stressed the need for security agents to also beam their searchlight on other polling units across the state where such acts might also be perpetrated.

Speaking on the development, Muhammed frowned at the menace of vote-buying by political agents, saying that his men had no choice than to disperse those engaging in the practice.

He reiterated that it was important for citizens to understand that elections should be free and fair.

The NSCDC Deputy Commandant advised parents to restrain their wards and keep them indoor as anybody caught in the act of vote-buying would be arrested and made to face the full wrath of the law.

Nobody was, however, arrested at the scene as the suspected perpetrators immediately took to their heels.

The Star