The Ondo State governorship election has come and gone, but not without throwing up some critical issues. In this analysis, The ICIR X-rays areas that should border the government of the day.

On Saturday, November 16, the people of Ondo State in Nigeria’s southwest zone headed to the polls, to elect a new governor for the next four years.

A total of 18 political parties fielded candidates in the election which was largely described as free and fair.

At the end of Saturday’s voting exercise,  the incumbent governor and the All Progressives Congress (APC) flag bearer, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, emerged as the winner.

He polled 366,781 votes to defeat his main contender, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Agboola Ajayi, who garnered 117,845.

The results as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) indicated that he won in all 18 local government areas (LGAs).

Announcing the results of the poll on Sunday, November 17, at the INEC collation centre in Akure, the Ondo State capital, the returning officer, Olayemi Durotimi Akinwunmi, a professor, declared  Aiyedatiwa the winner and was returned elected.

Post election concerns

Amid Aiyedatiwa’s landslide victory, there was a general concern over vote buying during the election, which is a recurring decimal undermining Nigeria’s electoral process.

Another issue exposed during the election is the safety of the lives of people living and moving within the riverine communities.

Vote-buying at polling units

Alleged buying of votes was said to have undermined the credibility of the just concluded Ondo state governorship election.

In one of its reports, Yiaga Africa, an election-focused civil society organisation (CSO), said it observed vote-buying around polling units during the Saturday’s poll in Ondo State.

Describing as “the not-so-great stuff”, Yiaga stated, “Vote buying drama: still a major issue, with cash flying around polling units. In 11 per cent of polling units, ballots weren’t so secret. party agents were scooping.”

The programme director at Yiaga Africa, Cynthia Mbamalu, stressed the point further when she appeared on Channels TV’s  programme, ‘The morning brief’, on  November 18.

She explained that Yiaga Africa’s findings showed money paid in vote  in some locations was as high as N20,000 per voter in different parts of the state during the poll.

The CSO had, in its pre-election report, indicated that political parties had started indulging in voters inducement even before the poll.

Mbamalu said data from the organisation shows people were openly collecting money, and showing their ballot papers to party agents.

She noted that vote buying had become a major challenge in Nigeria’s electoral process and was an important factor in the Ondo governorship election.

She asserted that the vote-buying observed during the poll was like a contest allegedly indulged in by both the APC and the PDP.

“Vote buying is becoming a major issue,” she said,  lamenting it was one part of the security challenge during elections.

“We’re expecting to see a lot more arrests over vote buying or electoral offender and subsequent prosecution because that is one way to curb it,” Mbamalu said.

On the other hand, it is a call to the political parties and politicians that continuing to use money to influence the electoral process creates a bigger problem in the electoral system, she added.

A video that went viral during the polls captured a scene where a vote buying suspect was apprehended during the election.

It was also observed that individuals indulging in the act were distributing money to voters at 18, Omolare Street, near Polling Units 06 and 05 in Ward 7.

The ICIR gathered that voters were offered N5,000, though the political party involved could not be verified.

Penalties for infraction

The constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, the Electoral Act 2010, as amended and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) rules and regulations constitute the legal frameworks which regulate the electoral process in Nigeria.

According to the electoral umpire, bribery and corruption in the form of vote buying attract penalties.

In its rule, it states that anyone in breach of any of the provisions is liable to be arrested and charged to court and prosecuted by INEC after investigation by the relevant security agencies.

Specifically, it states that paying money to any other person for bribery at any election attracts the penalty of the conviction of the offender to a maximum fine of N500,000 or 12 months imprisonment or both.

It further provides that receiving any money or gift for voting or to refrain from voting at any election attracts the penalty of a maximum fine of N500,000 or imprisonment for 12 months or both.

Question mark on security agencies’ conduct

Over 43,000 security personnel, headed by the Nigeria police , including the armed forces, intelligence security agencies, and other sister security agencies, were deployed during the Ondo state governorship poll.

The police alone deployed 34,757 personnel to polling units, wards, and local government collation centres across the state, according to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbedokun.

Their involvement was to use their personnel and material resources to safeguard the state’s 18 LGAs, 203 wards, and 3,933 voting units. However, the incidents of vote-buying and other electoral infractions went unhindered under their watch.

A public affairs analyst, Jide Ojo, believes that the issue of vote-buying during elections has become more worrying because of the hardship in the country.

Nigerians are faced with untold hardship following President Bola Tinubu’s petrol subsidy removal and exchange rate unification that have caused inflation to spike and resulted in the high cost of commodities and transportation.

Ojo noted that the rising cost of living makes it more difficult for Nigerians to survive on a day-to-day basis.

He said before Saturday’s poll, dominant parties had started distributing fertilisers and grains, garri, to different wards.

“That is voter inducement and it is criminalised by the Nigerian electoral law,” he pointed out.

“But how would you resist a situation where over half of the population is in abject poverty, where they don’t know where their next meal will come from?”

Ojo believes that if the welfare of Nigerians and the state of social amenities are improved, Nigerians would be able to resist any attempt at inducing them to vote against their chosen candidates.

Ondo police PRO feigns ignorance

Despite reports of vote buying during the governorship poll, the state police public relations officer, Ibukun Odunlami, feigned ignorance of any incident when an ICIR reporter called to enquire about the arrests made by the security operatives.

She claimed the vote-buying incidents reported were hearsay and that most of it was not done at the polling centres.

“People keep saying there was vote-buying, there was vote-buying. Nobody made any reports to the police,” she told The ICIR.

“Like I said, vote-buying didn’t happen at the polling units. So, we can’t start talking about it that there was vote-buying and arrest people because most of this vote-buying talk was more of hearsay,” she insisted.

Odunlami also argued that if there was any claim of vote-buying, it should have been reported to the police, adding that the command had asked anyone who observed such happenings to call the divisional police officer in the area.

She, however, hinted, “Although, I think there was a report that maybe the DSS caught someone, but I can’t stand in to talk about the DSS. So, I won’t be able to talk about it.”

Safety measures in riverine communities

During the  governorship election, The ICIR observed a lack of life jackets and other safety measures at the Igbonla waterfront in Ilaje LGA.

A large crowd of people, including children, were seen boarding canoes at the waterfront without any life jackets and safety information from people paddling the canoes.

The waterfront leads to other riverine areas like Obe Nla, Obeji, Obearelewo, Obefela, Oberewoye and Obeagun.

A resident, Katode Otunwi, told our  reporter that most of the adults were voters going to polling units in several communities in the area to cast their ballots.

It should be of worry that the incumbent governor of the state and APC’s winner of the poll, Lucky Ayedatiwa, is an indigene of Obe-Nla, one of the communities in the riverine area in Ondo south district.

The ICIR reported that Ayedatiwa voted in Obe-Nla around 9 am, seeking his first election as governor after he succeeded the late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, who died on December 27, 2023, after a prolonged illness.

The incidents of boat mishaps have killed many people in Nigeria’s riverine area, especially those being transported without a life jacket on them.

A trend analysis of boat accidents and causes in the waterways of Nigeria carried out by C U. Akpudo, a university lecturer who specialises in maritime transport shows frequent accidents within coastal and inland waterways have caused significant loss of human lives and properties.

According to the study, a total of 2,346 lives were lost to 266 casualties in boat accidents between 2010 to October 2021, stating the highest number of fatalities was recorded in 2021.

The study established that the major cause of boat accidents in Nigeria is human-related factors, which represented 67.21 per cent compared to 22.13 per cent caused by natural factors.

It further revealed that passenger boats have 52.46 per cent incidents relative to 14.21 accidents by cargo boats in Nigeria waterways.

The study recommended that to reduce the number of deaths and to save human lives, the availability of sufficient amount of life-saving appliances should be ensured on all the boats.

In other words, the government could subsidise the sale of life jackets to public boat operators for the use of their passengers, the research also recommended.