N20,000 vote-buying claims emerge as Ondo gov poll draws nearer

Campaign activities have been at its lowest ebb ahead of the Ondo governorship poll billed for Nov 16 amid allegations of parties saving money for vote-buying on Election Day, writes PETER DADA

On November 16, all eyes would be on Ondo people as they file out to elect the governor that would steer the ship of the state for the next four years, beginning from February 24, 2025.

According to the Independent National Electoral Commission, no fewer than 19 political parties will participate in the forthcoming poll.

Recently, the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mrs Oluwatoyin Babalola, disclosed that over two million Ondo residents registered for the election, saying the commission had concluded it Continuous Voters Registration Exercise.
The political parties that would compete to produce the next Ondo governor include the ruling All Progressives Congress, Peoples Democratic Party, Accord Party, Action Alliance, African Action Congress, African Democratic Congress, African Democratic Party and All Progressives Grand Alliance.

Others are Allied Peoples Movement, Action Peoples Party, Boot Party, Labour Party, New Nigeria Peoples Party, National Rescue Movement, Peoples Redemption Party, Social Democratic Party, Youth Party, Young Progressives Party and the Zenith Labour Party.

However, less than six weeks before the election, it’s been observed that political activities in the state have being at low ebb across the 18 Local Government Areas of the state. Despite the electoral commission lifting the ban on campaign, the political parties are yet to hit towns for open campaign to tell the people what they have to offer.
Of the 19 political parties for the election, only five have few of the posters and billboards of their candidates in some locations across the state. These are for the candidates of the APC (Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa), PDP (Agboola Ajayi), SDP (Bamidele Akingboye), ZLP (Abass Mimiko) and the NNPP (Gbenga Edema), while the remaining candidates seem not to be preparing for the election. As a result of their inactivity, a large number of the electorate are still wondering who some of the candidates are, following their inability to sell themselves to the people.

As at the time of writing this piece, only PDP had inaugurated its campaign council but its open campaign is yet to commence. However, the only activity that is currently going on in the political arena of the state, particularly between the ruling APC and the main opposition party, PDP, is the defection of members.

Some chieftains have left the PDP to join the APC and vice versa but many of the candidates have taken their campaigns to the social media as an alternative to house-to-house, town to town and village-to-village campaigns whereas those people at the grassroots, who often go out in the large number to vote on election day hardly have access to the social media. Unfortunately, many dwellers in the villages can’t even read, let alone have smart phones to read political manifestos on social media.

A political school of thought attributed the development to the economic hardship in the country. Many of the candidates of the less popular parties allegedly lack the financial capacity to embark on a full campaign round the 18 Local Government Areas of the state. It was gathered that some of them in the race relied on donations from friends and political associates to fund their campaigns and the election preparations in general while the candidates who have the financial muscles are being prudent in order not to be ‘licked dry’ before the election.

A source in one of the parties alleged that some of the big political parties have allegedly stockpiled huge amount of money in their vaults and strong rooms in readiness for the illegal vote-buying on Election Day. He said the concerned parties were ready to buy votes for as much as N20,000 or more per vote just as it allegedly happened in the last  governorship election in Edo State.

This is coming despite the Ondo INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Babalola’s promise that security agencies would be fully on ground on the Election Day to prevent all forms electoral malpractices.

“I can tell you for free that it is going to be money for money. That is the plan of the big parties,” our source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because his political party didn’t authorise him to speak on the matter, said.
“So, any candidate who doesn’t have the money to buy votes only wants his name to appear on the ballots and not competing to win the election. I know our party has kept money to spend on that day. I learnt some other parties are waiting for the day too. That is why don’t see them spending much money to campaign.
“This is because in some communities in Ondo State, they don’t need your campaign, if you campaign till tomorrow and don’t give them money on Election Day you are just wasting your time. So, the politicians have known them and understand them. I believe it is part of the new strategy the politicians are adopting now. It is very obvious that the campaigns are not the way they used to be.”

Some of the parties, however, said they had concluded plans to kick off their campaigns in the coming days, adding that the delay was as a result of the underground arrangements they were making ahead of the forthcoming poll, and not because of the alleged plan to buy votes.

The Director of Media and Publicity of the Lucky Aiyedatiwa Campaign Organisation Foot Soldiers, Kayode Fasua, disclosed that the ruling party’s campaign would kick off on Saturday. He, however, refuted allegations of vote-buying on Election Day.

“That (vote-buying) is not correct. The campaigns will start on Saturday in Ondo with Ondo Central senatorial rally. Governor Aiyedatiwa does not need to buy votes; he is busy winning hearts with various developmental projects, human empowerment activities and socio-economic reforms programmes,” Fasua said.

In the same vein, the Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kennedy Peretei, said the party had already embarked on its campaign in its rigorous efforts to win back the state in the forthcoming election.

Peretei said, “There is hardly any local government we have not visited since the campaigns officially began in June. We inaugurated national and state campaign councils. Most local governments have inaugurated local committees where campaigns have been ongoing. If you say we are not campaigning, what of the APC that does not have any campaign structure?”
Gbenga Edema, candidate of the NNPP, said his party would kick-start its campaign next week, claiming that they were against the act of vote-buying.

He said, “We are kicking off our campaign next week, when it would be exactly one month to the election. Then we will go roll our jingles on radios, we will begin house-to-house, street-to-street, person-to-person campaign.

“There is no case of vote buying in our matter, we are going for the election, we have prepared very well and no doubt that we are winning the election by God’s grace. Anybody thinking he wants to use money to woo the people, to buy the people’s conscience, is just wasting his time. Ondo State people want us and they will vote for us. They are tired of bad governance and we are ready to deliver real and sincere dividends of democracy.”

Similarly, the candidate of Zenith Labour Party, Dr Abass Mimiko said the party delayed its campaign to enable it plan appropriately for the poll. He also declared that there would be no room for any party to involve in the illegal act of buying and selling of votes.

Mimiko said, “We are busy reorganising ourselves, we are kicking off very soon but on the issue of vote-buying, we are not party to that. We are going to put a full stop to that in Ondo State. That is why we are educating our people that the mantra of some parties now is that they will buy a vote for N20,000, that this is what is going to bring destruction to our state because N20,000 on Election Day translates into no good governance in the next four years. But our people are not cowards, they are going to resist any attempt to steal their votes on Election Day because they are tired of old faces, they are tired of clueless governments. They want new faces, we are the new faces.”

A public affairs analyst, Dr Gbenga Abimba, said the inability of the participating political parties in the state to embark on campaigns on time was as a result of the alleged plan of politicians to win election without serious campaigns.

According to him, the political class in the country has taken the electorate for granted because they believe campaigning is not a major tool to achieve victory in an election.
Abimbola said, “The big parties have the money but they don’t want to spend for the campaign. They would rather wait for Election Day to share money to the people. On the other hand, the less popular parties don’t have the money to campaign round the state and thus resort to using social media to campaign but how far would they go? I think it is what played out in Edo State that is likely to take place here.

“On the other hand, the people no longer have trust and confidence in their campaigns because they know that little or nothing from the campaign promises would be delivered. But I know they would still come out to campaign, maybe a few days to Election Day to wrap up the whole process.”