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  • #Edodecides2024: How vote buying led to large voters’ turnout –CDD

    #Edodecides2024: How vote buying led to large voters’ turnout –CDD

    The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD-West Africa) Election Analysis Centre (EAC) has said that vote buying and fake news characterised Saturday’s off-cycle governorship election in Edo State.

    The Chair of CDD-EAC, Prof. Adele Jinadu, on Saturday at a briefing on the preliminary statement on the election, in Abuja, also alleged that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) engaged in massive vote buying ranging from N5,000 to N10,000 in the presence of security agents, leading to increase in voters’ turnout.

    He said the fake news included the denial of voters from using the umbrella despite the donwpour and the purported arrest of a PDP thug in Egor, which the CDD-EAC fact-checkers later found out to be the arrest of a robbery suspect in Lagos as far back as 2022.

    “The heavy downpour reported in some parts of the state, and the reported prevention of people from coming to the PUs with umbrellas, may have affected turnout of voters. Another observation is the likelihood of rains damaging the paper based ballots used by INEC.

    “On the morning of the election, several fake images and videos circulated across social media platforms, particular WhatsApp. CDD Countering Disinformation War Room also observed cases of old images being repurposed to spread false narratives.

    “For example, the CDD War Room received an image with the claim that a thug associated with the PDP was arrested in Egor. The verification of the image by our fact checkers indicated it came from the arrest of a robbery suspect in Lagos as far back as 2022,” Prof. Jinadu said.

    He said that 34% of all claims made on Election Day focused on the PDP candidate, 26% of the claims targeted the APC candidate, while 14% of the claims on Election Day focused on INEC.

    “It was observed that the APC and PDP offered

  • Off-circle elections: Vote buying, violence remain sore points – CDD

    Off-circle elections: Vote buying, violence remain sore points – CDD

    Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD),  said vote buying and electoral violence remained the sore points in the Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi governorship elections.

    Dr Jack Johnson, Member of the CDD Election Analysis Centre (CDD-EAC) made this known in Abuja at a news conference on the off-cycle elections.

    Jackson said that the CDD-EAC, had been observing the off-cycle elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi with a deployment of over 150 fact-checkers and observers in all three states, as well as a team of data clerks, reviewers and analysts in its situation room in Abuja.

    He said that overall there was early commencement of polls as well as the usage of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), however, there were several reports about voter inducement across all three states.

    ” Observers reported incidents in PU 1, Ward 8 and PU 11, Ward 1 in Sagbama LGA in Bayelsa West.

    “In Bayelsa Central, vote trading was reported in PU 16, Ward 6 in Yenegoa LGA, PU 22, Ward 13 in Southern Ijaw LGA with reports of voter inducements ranging from N5,000 – N22,000, including other items such as wrappers.

    “In PU 30 and 31, Ward 13, along with money, rice was also shared to buy votes.

    ” we are concerned that there were allusions that it might be linked to the delayed flood and subsidy palliatives that state governments only started distributing two days ago.”

    Jackson said that CDD observed that in Kogi, there were reports of vote buying in PUs 004, 038 and 039 in Ward A of Lokoja LGA, where party agents were allegedly sharing out money to voters upon confirmation that they voted for their party candidates.

    He further said that the two major parties’ agents were reported to have engaged in vote buying, with N2000 to N3000 shared and same at PU3 Mbutu Ward, Aboh Mbaise LGA as well as PU11, Civic Centre Ward, Mbaitoli LGA.

    He added that in PU 7, Central School UmuNakanu Ehime LGA, in Imo, there were reports that INEC ad hoc staff were given monetary inducements by party officials.

    He said that incidents of vote buying were concentrated in Mbaitoli-Ezinihitte, Owerri West and Njaba LGAs with the highest number of collected PVCs amongst the LGAs in the state with 150,012 and 134,192 cards.”

    Jackson said that regrettably, electoral violence remained a sore point in this election.

    He added that electoral violence was reported in Dekini LGA, specifically in Agala Ogane PU, Anyigba town, a thug was reportedly shot and killed by military officials while fleeing in an attempt to snatch a ballot box.

    “There was a similar attempt in Ganaja PU, Ajaokuta LGA where the LGA chair was apprehended by voters.

    “In Yenagoa LGA, observers reported that one person was shot at Famgbe community and, in PU 24 Ward, voting ended abruptly when thugs destroyed election materials at about 11:45 a.m.

    “We note that in these area polling units, there was little or no presence of security officials.

    “Similar instances were reported in Brass PU 7 Ward 7, observers reported that there were no security agents as late as 10:19 a.m. in spite of voting having started.”

    Jackson said CDD also noted some election irregularities as well as fake news.

    He said that days to the election, it was consistently claimed that the SDP candidate in Kogi, Murtala Ajaka, stepped down from the race and on the morning of the election, a false message was circulated that Ajaka was disqualified because of his running mate’s certificate controversy.

    He added that there was a similar situation in Imo, where a video was circulated that purportedly showed the PDP’s candidate, Sam Anyanwu, had stepped down and endorsed the incumbent governor of the APC.

    He, however, said that the video was similarly debunked but not before it had been widely reported on social media and on news platforms.

     

  • Five major issues that will shape election on Saturday – CDD

    Five major issues that will shape election on Saturday – CDD

    Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), a renowned pro-democracy group, has revealed four key issues that will determine  the voting pattern in the 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections.

    The group explained that Saturday’s polls will be very tight and closely contested by Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and has remain very difficult to predict who would win.

    Tinubu is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Atiku is for the Peoples Democratic Party, Obi is carrying the flag of the Labour Party, LP, while Kwankwaso is the flagbearer of the New Nigerian Peoples Party, NNPP.

    According to the pre-election brief signed by the EAC Chairman, Professor Adele Jinadu and CDD Director, Idayat Hassan, identity, insecurity, institutions, information disorder and inter and intra party squabbles are five key issues that will determine the voting pattern of the election.

    The CDD pointed out that all six geopolitical zones of the country are faced with insecurity issues, which has led to the deployment of the Nigerian military across the federation.

    “Northern states are engulfed in long-standing violence with extremist jihadist groups, criminal bandit gangs, and other non-state armed groups who are engaged in deadly attacks against local communities.

    “In the south, civil unrest continues against the backdrop of ongoing violence between farmers and herders and secessionist agitators.

    “The situation is further complicated by fuel and currency scarcity which is increasing economic hardships on the more than 130 million Nigerians classified as multi-dimensionally poor,” the group said.

    The elections would come on Saturday and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has declared its readiness to conduct the polls.

  • CDD scores INEC high on conduct of Ekiti Governorship election

    CDD scores INEC high on conduct of Ekiti Governorship election

    The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), on Saturday scored the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) high in the conduct of the Ekiti Governorship election.

    Prof. Shola Omotola, Member, Centre for Democracy and Development  Election Analysis Centre (CDD -EAC)  and Professor of Political Science, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, made this known in CDD’s second preliminary statement in Abuja.

    Presenting the preliminary report to newsmen, Omotola said that the conduct of the election by INEC was a significant improvement on previous elections.

    He said that the general atmosphere of the elections was peaceful and INEC officials arrived early for the conduct of the election.

    “CDD-EAC observer reports showed that by 8:30 am, 64 per cent of polling units visited had opened, and between 8:30 am and 9:30 am, another 29 per cent had opened.

    “The data indicate that 93 per cent of the Polling Units in the areas observed had started voting by 9:30 am.

    “The CDD-EAC data point to a high usage of the BVAS, with 88 per cent of polling units visited reporting effective usage.

    “Although there were hitches in very few locations, where our observers noted that some voters could not be accredited, the CDD-EAC observers rated the efficiency of the BVAS as either “very good or excellent.”

    He added that in the 31 reported cases where the BVAS malfunctioned, 71 per cent of those cases were resolved within an hour.

    “On the average therefore, CDD-EAC data indicated that it took around 2.4 minutes for voters to be processed through the BVAS.

    “In 45 per cent of the cases, voters were accredited in two minutes or less, while in 87 per cent of the cases each voter was accredited within four minutes.”

    Omotola said that the CDD-EAC observers reported a worrisome situation in which some voters were allowed to cast their ballot without being authenticated by the BVAS.

    He said that the group also observed that INEC tried to provide assistive materials like braille, magnifying glasses for Persons With Disabilities (PWDs).

    He said that 24.2 per cent of some polling units were not accessible to voters with disabilities, while only 24.1 per cent of polling units visited made provision for visually impaired voters by providing braille ballot guides and magnifying glasses.

    Omotola said that CDD-EAC observers documented 41 instances of vote buying and selling at Polling Units.

    He said that one of the observable patterns of vote buying was the collection of cash in brown envelopes, which was apparently meant to disguise the content of the envelopes in order to avoid arrest by the anti-corruption agencies.

    He, however, said that CDD-EAC commended the arrest of some political actors who were alleged to be involved in vote buying in the course of the election.

    Omotola said that the CDD-EAC Fake News Hub tracked and fact-checked a number of fake news and misinformation trending on Election Day.

    “A major trending item was the purported withdrawal letter of the SDP candidate, Segun Oni, and his endorsement of the PDP candidate, which circulated across social media.

    “Another claim on Twitter was that 9 million voters were expected to vote in the Ekiti 2022 gubernatorial election.

    “This claim was checked by CDD-EAC fact checkers, who returned a verdict of “false” for the claim as there are 988,923 voters registered by INEC for the Ekiti Governorship election.”

    Omotola said that another fake news was tracked relating to claims that in Ido/Osi, soldiers were preventing voters from going to their polling units which was verified to be false among others.

  • INEC to review performance of BVAS as vote buying, selling mar FCT polls

    INEC to review performance of BVAS as vote buying, selling mar FCT polls

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it plans to review the performance and functionalities of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) deployed for Saturday’s FCT Area Councils Poll.

    Mr Yahaya Bello, the FCT INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner(REC) made this known even as the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) has said the FCT Area Councils Poll witnessed massive vote-buying by politicians who were desperate of winning.

    Bello said that the commission had observed challenges faced by voters due to the non-functionality of the BVAS and was working to address them.

    “Equally, there was also the misunderstanding about what to do with the BVAS. The election is the only Area Council Election in this country that is being conducted by INEC and it invested heavily in the preparation for the election.

    “We have Registration Area Centre Technicians trained in order to respond to any malfunctioning of the BVAS and provided transportation for them for swift response,” he said.

    Bello said that six INEC Resident Electoral Commissioners and three National Commissioners were drafted for the election to ensure it success.

    “We have upcoming elections, so between now and then the issues would be looked into to avoid future challenges,” he said.

    Vote-buying, selling characterise FCT Poll – CDD

    Meanwhile, the CDD has said the FCT Area Councils Poll witnessed massive vote-buying by politicians who were desperate of winning.

    Mr Austin Aigbe, Senior Programme Officer, CDD, said this at a news conference in Abuja on Sunday.

    TNG reports voters across the six Area Councils and the 62 political wards in the FCT headed for the poll to elect Chairmen and Councilors who would represent them for the next four years.

    The FCT Area Council Election was the only local councils’ election handled by the INEC.

    Aigbe said: “CDD alongside other key stakeholders in the electoral process kept a close watch on the process, while educating and mobilizing the electorate to participate massively in the process.

    “Observers reported cases of vote-buying in Gwagwalada, where votes were bought with money. Another case of vote-buying was reported in 03 P.U 003 where a voter was asked to quickly vote so he can be handed his money.

    “At Abaji Southeast Ward Code 03 PU 003 there were reports of serious vote buying, also at Abaji/ward 001 PU 003 party agents were seen doling out money to voters who only display their ballot papers indicating their party was voted for.

    ”In PU 003 Abaji Southeast Ward, the vote buying strategy involved party agents asking voters who had been induced to converge in a particular location away from the polling unit to sell their vote. Money exchanged hands ranging from N1,500 to N2,500.

    “Voters were thereafter asked to meet a particular person for submission of their PVCs,” he said.
    Aigbe said urged Nigerians to desit from vote selling as it was capable of comprising the electoral process.

    He said that resisting vote selling would make politicians to know that they could no longer buy votes, so they would have to perform.

    Aigbe said that the functionality of INEC Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for voters during the election was also questionable.

    “In terms of the number of minutes spent on accreditation for areas where the BVAS worked, CDD EAC observers reported that voters spent an average of 8-10 minutes on the accreditation process.

    “This translates roughly to eight voters being accredited in one full hour.
    “CDD observers also reported that across all the Area Councils, AMAC recorded the greatest number of functional BVAS.

    ” The Area Councils where observers reported non-functional BVAS were Kuje and Abaji,” he said.
    Aigbe said that data from CDD field observers indicated that the functionality of BVAS continued to be a major source of hitches and delays in the electoral process.

    “In terms of logistics, CDD observe that INEC officials who arrived before 8:00a.m., stood at 22.5 per cent of the polling units observed, while poll officials who arrived between 8:00 and 8:30a.m., stood at 50.7 per cent.

    “The poll officials who arrived after 8:30a.m., stood at 26.8 per cent across polling units observed by CDD EAC observers,” he said.

    Mr Armsfee Ajanaku ,Communications Manager, CDD, said that the centre also observed low voters turnout in some places.

    Ajanaku said that in ward five in Abuja Municipal Council (AMAC) a polling station with four polling units did not record a single voter turning out to cast his vote during the poll.
    He said that the centre also witnessed poor crowd management, which led to INEC officials being overcrowded by voters, thereby disrupting the general electoral processes.

    He added that serious fight ensued between voters and the queue was dissolved. thereafter, a group of thugs invaded Ward 06 PU 003 and carted away the ballot box and other electoral materials.

    He said that in terms of gender participation in the election, CDD observers’ data showed that 33.2 per cent of INEC officials were women, while 66.8 per cent were men across the observed areas.

  • CDD condemns vote-buying in some polling centres in FCT area council polls

    CDD condemns vote-buying in some polling centres in FCT area council polls

    The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) has decried alleged vote-buying during the Saturday’s area council polls in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    The Director of CDD, Idayat Hassan,made this known in a preliminary statement on the conduct of the elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja.

    CDD deployed observers to monitor the election across the six area councils.

    According to her, as in previous elections, vote-buying was very rampant in the polls.

    “CDD observers reported cases of vote-buying in Gwagwalada, Abaji, AMAC, Kwali, Bwari and Kuje.

    “However, vote-buying was pronounced in the five other area councils compared to AMAC, with vote trading for as low as N1,000 and up to N3,000,” she said.

    She said that the election also recorded low voters turnout, particularly in the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), with a polling station with four polling units in Ward 5 in AMAC not recording a single voter turning out to cast any vote.

    The director, who said that late start of votes due to poor logistics hindered the election, added that this was exacerbated by the hiccups encountered with the electronic voting machines (BVAS).

    “CDD analysis put early arrival at 22 per cent as at 8 am.

    “But unfortunately, over fifty per cent of poll officials arrived after 9 am, leading to late commencement, which was eventually exacerbated by the hiccups encountered with the voting machines (BVAS).

    ‘In many instances, the BVAS refused to capture voters’ biometrics delaying pollings, such as reported in PU 003, BVAS,” she said.

    She decried the incidences of vote buying during the poll.

  • Politicians should be required to publicly disclose sources of income – CDD

    Politicians should be required to publicly disclose sources of income – CDD

    Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD-West Africa) on Monday,, said politicians should be required to publicly disclose their sources of income to foster accountability and develop public trust.

    Director CDD, Idayat Hassan, said this at the launch of the Democracy Watch Reports, a series of reports that examined the state of democracy in Nigeria since May 1999 in Abuja.

    Hassan said that the measure was necessary to forestall corruption in the country as contained in Nigeria’20 years of anti-corruption report .

    She said that the three reports launched by CDD were meant to gauge the performance of Nigeria against some basic attributes of democracy and socio-economic transformation in the last two decades.

    She said that the first report interrogated data on human rights condition in Nigeria while the second report questioned the anti-corruption efforts of Nigeria by x-raying the activities of anti-graft agencies and the third report examined the economic plans of the various administrations in Nigeria.

    Hassan said that for each of the reports, CDD made some recommendations asking that to forestall corruption,legislators should collaborate with anti-corruption agencies and commissions to enact legislation affecting the prosecution of corruption cases.

    “Given the decentralised nature of cryptocurrency, legislators should amend vital legislation to address virtual money laundering concerns.

    “The National Assembly should revise the Code of Conduct Bureau Act to permit public disclosure of officeholders’ asset declarations without jeopardising officeholders’ privacy or safety.

    “The Presidency and National Assembly must strengthen their supervision over ministries, departments, and agencies and collaborate to reinforce their legal and administrative mandates.

    “ Nigeria’s international partners should support national efforts by taking firmer measures to deter public funds theft and prevent illicit financial flows.

    “Finally, our third report recommended that Nigeria needs economic policy reforms especially diversifications so that major macroeconomic variables can be brought under control.

    “This is urgently needed more than ever because of the economic and fiscal challenges brought about by the collapse of the global oil prices occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic,’’she said

    Hassan said that to address the issue of human rights violations, the report urged the government must ensure to safeguard the constitutional guarantees of human rights.

    She said that security forces should be effectively trained and regulated in this area to avoid human rights breaches.

    She added that the Federal and State governments were urged to take note of and execute relevant recommendations from various human rights panel reports.

    She said that Civil Society Organisations could contribute to the training of security professionals in the conduct of ethical civil military operations.

    She also urged media houses should give priority to investigative journalism that focuses on human rights issues to bring the abuses to the public attention and assist in holding government accountable and educate the public about their human rights and avenues for redress.

    She said that public participation in governance was also critical for a democracy to ensure that citizens demand their fundamental human rights and are held accountable for any violations.

    Hassan some of the major findings of the report showed that over 70 per cent of the prison population in Nigeria was made up of detainees awaiting trial, with over 20 per cent awaiting trial for more than a year.

    The report also showed that Nigeria had not fared well in all human rights indicators used, despite utilizing the basic indicators.

    “This trend, it said even deteriorated with the fact that there is now an emergent trend of security officers receiving orders from elites in Nigeria to remand detainees for longer on spurious grounds.

    She added that that the menace of unlawful detention has become rather pervasive such that it has required the intervention of ECOWAS special court in some cases.

    Hassan said that the report condemned extra judiciary killing of innocent Nigerians as witnessed since the advent of democracy in 1999.

    Hassan said that to address the issue of human rights violations, the report urged government to safeguard the constitutional guarantees of human rights which they swore to uphold.

    She, however, said that the report called for public participation in governance so as to ensure that citizens demand their fundamental human rights and are held accountable for any violations.

    Adebayo Olukoshi ,a distinguished Professor With School of Governances , while delivering his keynote address, said the purpose of democratisation needed to be redefined.

    Olukoshi said that Nigeria should be able to deliver development and job opportunity adding that failure to do that the nation’s quest to strengthen and consolidate democracy would amount to jumping on the same spot without making progress.

    He urged political parties to be more programmatic rather than pursuing personal goals and God fatherism type of politics.

    ‘‘This report for me is an attempt to offer a balance sheet of the road we have traveled since 1999.

    “ In the early years of our transition, we made fairly significant progress. Our story subsequently becomes that of under performance in democracy governance.

    ‘‘There has been a gradual closing of civil spaces and conscription of civil liberties in the country, including restriction of media freedom and independence.

    ”In spite of the best efforts of election management authorities, we have seen a continued assault on election integrity in the country. Therefore, the struggle to make vote matter remains a live one.’’

    In his remarks, INEC Commissioner in Niger State, Prof. Sam Egwu, described the report as a deep reflection on Nigeria’s journey for the past 20 years plus coming from very authoritarian background.

    ‘‘We have seen flowering civil and political liberties, regular and periodic elections with some degree of improvements.

    “ We have seen some degree of competition and acceptance of defeat but we have not been able to bring so much benefits to people in terms of material upliftment.

    ‘‘We have been blindly trying to build a liberal democratic order that has not factored in the importance of welfare of the people,” he said.

    Egwu said that there was need to really interrogate Nigeria’s type of democracy and alongside improving our elections, by thinking of a type of democracy that would put in place measures to empower common citizens and make them come out of poverty.

    He also called for the need to work on national unity and integrity, and try to a develop liberal democratic order.

  • Ondo Poll: NGO condemns vote buying

    Condemning what it called serious vote buying during the Ondo Governorship election, the Centre for Democracy Development (CDD), a non-govermental Organasation (NGO), on Saturday alleged that politicians engaged in the fraud.

    The CDD Director, Idayat Hassan, disclosed this during an interactive session with newsmen in Akure, the state capital.

    Hassan said CDD noted that politicians still devised ways to engage in vote buying, warning that the electoral offence is fraudulent and poses danger to democracy if it is not adequately curbed.

    According to her, “We observed a consistent pattern of vote buying, with those engaged in it adopting tactics to induce voters, while evading security officials and election observers.

    “Our observers documented attempts by politicians to outspend each other by disbursing large sums of money to community leaders for onward distribution to voters.

    “Deviating from their previous style of distributing cash discreetly at points close to the polling units, the politicians created outposts where voters can go to collect cash after proving that they voted for the vote-buying party.

    “Our observers reported that party agents largely stayed away from coordinating vote buying but their parties designated someone who is not a party agent and appears to be neutral to direct voters to their outposts to collect cash,” she said.

    She said as highlighted in a preliminary report, parties set aside bulk sums of money, ranging from N150,000 to N600,000, for each polling unit across the LGA.

    Hassan further alleged that the monies were distributed to popular figures, especially leaders of youth groups, to share to voters in their areas.

    The group commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the timely arrival of its officials and materials to the polling units across the state.

    CDD said in general, INEC officials and security agents arrived at the Polling Units between 7 am and 8 am, but pointed out that INEC officials were attacked towards the end of voting.

    Hassan noted that CDD observers reported cases of hoodlums chasing away Registration Area Centre (RAC) technicians in Akure South Local government.

    “The attacks compromised the transparency of the electoral process because the upload of results into the INEC Results Viewing Platform was disrupted.

    “These RAC technicians are responsible for maintaining the Smart Card Readers, and preventing them from doing their duty also created problems in the area of maintaining faulty card readers.

    The group commended voters across the state for their determination and resilience to peacefully exercise their franchise and in many cases defend the sanctity of the ballot in very challenging conditions.