Dogara blames INEC, security agencies for vote-buying in Osun gov election

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has blamed the reported incidents of vote-buying during the governorship election that led to the emergence of Gboyega Oyetola of the APC on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security operatives.

Dogara made this known in Abuja on Monday while speaking at the opening of a one-day public hearing on vote-buying and improving the electoral processes organised by the National Assembly joint committee on INEC and political parties.

He described the act of using the electoral umpires to induce and coerce voters to vote for certain candidates as “absurdities.”

He called on all and sundry to not only condemn the act but also devise ways to avert the recurrence of such practices ahead of the 2019 election.

He said, “A more worrisome dimension to vote buying is the alleged use of the officials of the electoral umpire, INEC, and officers of security agencies to induce, or intimidate and coerce voters to vote for particular candidates.”

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“Such absurdities have been widely reported in the media and confirmed by some local and international observers in respect of the recently concluded governorship elections in Osun State.

“As expected, all lovers of democracy worldwide rose to condemn these despicable incidents. Condemnation is not enough, it will amount to hypocrisy, if we don’t take the bull by the horn by taking concrete steps to eliminate these evils that make mockery of our hard worn democracy.”

In his own remarks, the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki wants the incident form scrapped during the 2019 elections.

“For example, the use of Incident Form to bypass the lawful process of accreditation and voting is not good for the country. We must do away with it.

“This is one of those issues concerning which, whether there is a law or not, all of us who are stakeholders should come to agreement and address the anomaly.

“At the very least, this is one minimum condition that we must meet as we move towards 2019 Polls.

“All stakeholders should demonstrate the fact that a credible and transparent election is far better and more important than who wins that election”, he said.

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