OSUN GUBER: INEC vows to go tough with vote-buyers

<p><strong>The Independent National Electoral Commission &lpar;INEC&rpar; has communicated its plan to deploy readiness assessment team to Osun State ahead of gubernatorial election in that state on July 16&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The INEC Chairman&comma; Mahmood Yakubu who stated this in a special meeting with Inter-Agency Consultative Committee Election Security &lpar;ICCES&rpar; on Saturday&comma; promised to visit the state in the next few days to have a meeting with appropriate stakeholders&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Speaking on the cases of vote-buying and other malpractices during Ekiti gubernatorial election&comma; the Chairman promised to deal appropriately with anybody caught in the act&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He commended the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission &lpar;EFCC&rpar; and other anti-corruption agencies for their role in the elections&comma; promising adequate collaboration ahead of July 16 election in Osun State&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Yakubu said&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;In the next two weeks&comma; the Osun State governorship election is holding on Saturday July 16 2022&comma; As is the case on the eve of all major off-cycle elections&comma; ICCES holds a special meeting to review operational and developmental plans&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;On our part&comma; all the major activities that are supposed to be carried out at this stage have been successfully undertaken&period; The Commission is deploying a readiness assessment team to Osun State next week to assess our preparations for the elections&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We will visit some of our local governments in the state&comma; hold meetings with our staff&comma; brief the Council of Traditional Rulers do solicit the support of their royal Majesties for peaceful elections and meet with the security agencies and transporter&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We will also observe the mock accreditation of voters in some polling units across the three Senatorial Districts of the State to test the functionality of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System &lpar;BVAS&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Again&comma; arising from the experience in recent elections&comma; vote buying remains a major area of concern&period; We appreciate the role played by the anti-corruption and security agencies in apprehending some of the perpetrators of this brazen assault on our democracy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;In particular&comma; we are working with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission &lpar;EFCC&rpar; to ensure the prosecution of persons arrested in the recent Ekiti Governorship election&period; Action will commence as soon as the EFCC completes its investigation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I appeal to all security agencies to continue to join hands with the Commission to tackle this menace&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;