YIAGA Africa has accused all the major political parties that participated in the September 21, 2024, Edo gubernatorial election of engaging in vote-buying.
News About Nigeria reports that the allegation was made by the Executive Director of YIAGA Africa, Samson Itodo, during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today program on Monday.
In the interview, Itofo also accused all the major political parties in the election of being a part of the infractions that happened in the election.
Giving details on the vote-buying claim, Itodo noted that both YIAGA and other Civil Society Organisations that observed the election noticed that parties gave out 5,000 to N10,000 naira to bribe voters.
Itodo, who did not list the major political parties said, “One thing I can tell you is that all the political parties are complicit in the infractions that happened in the course of this election. At least, all the major political parties were all involved in vote buying as we have states in our mid-day situational statement and as other observer groups have also stated because the major political parties were seen buying votes for N10,000, N5,000. So, I think all the major political parties are complicit.”
He further noted that the group would still release a comprehensive report on the election and all that happened on Saturday.
Recall that the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), having scored, 291,667 votes.
On the other hand, his closest rival in the election, Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secured 247,655, while the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Olumide Akpata secured, 22,763 votes.
