The result of the governorship election held in Bayelsa State last Saturday was received with mixed feelings. There have been claims and counters-claims as to what transpired during the election, Mike Odiegwu, in this report, writes about how money played a major role in the election
PAY us N70,000 per vote,” residents of Odi in Kolokuma-Opokuma Local Government Area, bargained with agents of political parties during the concluded governorship election.
The shocking demand was made in one of the polling units.
As the voters continued to demand money, the agents of the parties also bargained for a lower amount. Incidentally, it was the local council the incumbent state governor is from.
One of the voters explained that they resorted to making demands from party agents because it was the only time to get money from the politicians. “There is hunger in town. This is the only time we can get money from the politicians. After now, we won’t see them again,” the voter explained.
In fact, all the polling units in Odi could be likened to a market square or a business centre. Party agents and voters haggled over the cost of votes and the party with the highest price got their votes.
While the cacophony was ongoing, the atmosphere remained calm. There was no fighting. It was about buying and selling.
Odi was not the only community where votes were bought and sold, most communities in Ogbia, Yenagoa, Southern Ijaw, Sagbama, Brass, and Nembe, also sold and bought votes.
The lowest amount paid for a vote in the concluded Bayelsa poll was N12,000. The highest was N50,000. A significant part of Ogbia sold for above N25,000 each.
Initially, when the election started, it looked as if there was going to be voters’ apathy, but when the first set of voters appeared and collected money from the highest-paying agent, they went back to the communities and informed others that a lot of money was involved. In no time, most polling units bubbled with vote sellers.
Obviously, the people were hungry. They lived in squalor and had many bills to pay. They saw it as an opportunity to make brisk business and satisfy some of their needs.
The agents rolled bags of money into their various polling units. They came prepared. They had a notebook where the names of voters who voted for their parties were written. The process of collecting the money was made difficult.
A voter would approach a party of choice, agree for a fee, collect a ballot paper, vote and turn it to show the agent. He would then proceed to put the ballot paper into the box and would meet the agent to write his name and collect his money before leaving the polling unit. With such a procedure it was cumbersome for anyone voting for money to collect the cash and vote for another. It was a well-policed voter-inducement process.
A voter, who identified himself as Mathew, said he was in possession of two voter cards and that he voted two times in different polling units where he collected N25,000 each. Overjoyed by the development, he gifted his friend N1000 for beer.
Read Also: Sanwo-Olu unveils ‘Perfect Lagos Selfies’
He said: “I made N50,000. I voted in two different polling units and collected N25,000 each. I have two voters’ cards for the units. Immediately I heard that they were paying N25,000 per vote, so I went to bring my second voter’s card.”
Indeed, most people were dazed at the amount being paid to buy votes in the Bayelsa election. Hitherto, votes were sold and bought from between N3,000 to N5,000. But they wondered why in the Bayelsa scenario it increased astronomically. “Could it be that inflation affected the price of votes,” an observer, whose name could not be determined jokingly asked in one of the polling units.
A popular Bayelsa-based farmer, Zigha Ayibakoro, confirmed that his Igbomotoru community in Southern Ijaw also witnessed massive vote-buying.
He said: “I hired a boat to my community to cast my vote. On the day of the election, I went to my polling unit and saw that it was like a market. They were buying and selling votes. The unit was clustered.
“But I said, ‘Excuse me, get out of the way, I want to vote’. The agents were all shocked. But one of them after looking at me became afraid because he did not know who I was. They left the place and I voted my conscience.
“While I was on my way, one of the agents approached me and demanded to know who I was. I didn’t talk to him. He still offered to give me the money they gave to others. That was when I got provoked and he left. This is a community without potable water, healthcare facilities, and schools.
“This is a community where our youths and parents go to bed hungry. Most of our youths have all taken to drugs in that community. But on Election Day, politicians capitalise on their poor condition and roll out money to compromise them. Poverty is the weapon driving vote-buying”.
The Candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Udengs Eradiri, narrated how a woman, whose son he trained in a private university, collected N12,000 to vote against him.
He said: “There was vote-buying everywhere. But the one that shocked me was a woman I trained her child. I sent her son to a private university where I paid N450,000 every session. I sent her child to South Africa for another course. Her son has graduated and is waiting for his youth service.
“But this woman went to her polling units and we saw her going to collect only N12,000 to vote for another political party other than me. It was shocking and unbelievable.
“The election of Saturday, November 11, was marred by massive and mind-blowing vote-buying. We were shocked that all the polling units became market squares and business centres where votes were haggled over, bargained for, and purchased.”
Eradiri blamed vote buying during the election on poverty, saying it was used as a weapon to compel people to sell their consciences. He said: “Poverty was deliberately weaponized and it forced the people to sell their consciences for money at the polls.
“I consider vote-buying a crime against humanity. I cannot engage in vote-buying because it is a demonstration of a lack of performance, popularity, incompetence, leadership failure, and cluelessness on the part of the buyer. How can you bribe people to serve them?
“I was shocked at the level of vote-buying. A vote was bought as much as N70,000 in some places making the November 11 Bayelsa election the most monetized poll in the history of the country.
“I am not surprised that the people sold their votes. I wept during my campaign when I saw the condition of our people, and the naked squalor they live amidst. Don’t forget that Bayelsa was recently ranked as the second state in multidimensional poverty after Zamfara State. I know they were intimidated when they saw the kind of money they had never seen before at their polling units.
“The process adopted at the polling units encouraged buying and selling of votes. It made it difficult for voters to even collect their money and still vote their conscience. Each polling unit was clustered by party agents, who gave voters tags, ensured they turned in their ballot papers to show the thumb-printed party and compelled them to write their names before paying them. Officials of INEC and security agencies at the polling units were all compromised to look the other way.
“I call on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe all electoral officers that participated in the election. Most of them are the reasons for the rampant voter inducement in our country’s election. The commission should investigate the massive monetary inducements that occurred in the Bayelsa election.
“But it is time we stopped the monetisation of elections and inducement of voters. A new system must be set up to tackle this money-for-vote syndrome in our electoral system.”
A stalwart of one of the major parties, who identified himself simply as Collins, acknowledged that all parties engaged in vote-buying during the election. He warned that the practice would continue in subsequent elections if deliberate steps were not taken to introduce electronic voting in the electoral system.
