Yemi Adedeji, Abuja
AS part of effort aimed at ensuring that vote buying does not determine the outcome of 2019 elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it is ready to partner the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to curb the menace.
The Commission also said that it intends to ban the use of mobile phone at the voting centre based on calls that the Commission had been receiving in past elections that sometimes citizens take picture of their vote cast and later sent to those that buy the votes.
The Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed while playing host to the ICPC acting Chairman, Musa Abubakar in his office in Abuja.
He said that in addition to working with the ICPC and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), INEC was taking measures to ensure that votes were not bought particularly on election days.
The chairman stressed that the commission needed the collaboration of the citizens to report any cases of electoral violation through the commission’s Situation Room and free toll line INEC Citizens Contact Centre (ICCC).
Yakubu noted: “votes cast by citizens will continue to determine who wins in our elections. We are focusing more on the processes leading to that outcome.
“The outcome of any election is in the hands of the voters, but we are responsible in ensuring that the processes leading to free and credible elections.”
“We have said that we are going to review the administer of our polling units in such a way that it will be difficult for citizens who voted to expose their marked ballot papers before dropping them into ballot boxes.”
“I will like to speak to the citizens that whenever they see violations of Electoral Act to quickly report using our toll free number under our ICCC platform so that we can quickly respond.”
Yakubu revealed that the commission would provide situation room in Osogbo, Osun State which would provide the same assess to official of the commission on election day whenever citizens witness any violation on electoral act.
The chairman said; “Going forward in Osun, the commission is setting up an interagency collaborative framework against vote buying and over spending beyond what electoral Act stipulates to campaign for the votes of citizens.
The inter-agency framework according o him would include the cooperation and active participation of EFCC, ICPC and the security agencies particularly the police and Department of State Services and the Nigeria Intelligent Agency.
“Soon after Osun State Election the commission will unveil that framework for collaborative framework aimed to further sanitise our election processes.”
Earlier, Abubakar said that the ICPC identified with INEC and Nigerians on the issue of vote buying, and was willing to work with the election management body to curb the ugly trend.
He said that the ICPC was empowered to deal with all cases of corruption including those that committed during elections.
“Our law, the ICPC Acting empower ICPC to investigate and prosecute any person involved in any act of bribery and corruption under any law that prohibit corruption.
“I believe Electoral Act prohibit also provide a lot of sections that deals with corruption. So, vote buying is one of the corrupt practices under both our law and Electoral Act.
“We assure you that the ICPC identified ever ready to partner with INEC to ensure that this trend is totally eliminated or reduced to the bearest minimum.”