Some party agents have alleged vote buying in the ongoing Federal Capital Territory, FCT, council elections in some parts of Gwagwalada Area Council.
Agents representing Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Young Progressives Party, YPP, made the allegation at Better Life, UBE and Kotangora polling units in Gwagwalada.
They also claimed that INEC officials were not issuing the ballot papers in serial order during accreditation and voting.
A YPP agent, Momoh Abdul, particularly criticised the conduct of INEC officials, describing their handling of ballot papers as improper.
Abdul alleged that officials were tearing ballot papers from the bottom rather than from the top.
“The INEC officials are not issuing the ballot papers serially. Rather, they are tearing it from the end of the ballot booklet, and this is suspicious,” Abdul said.
He further claimed that votes were being bought for amounts ranging from N500 to N3,000, depending on negotiation between party representatives and voters.
Similarly, the PDP agent, Yahaya Umar, said that vote buying could undermine the credibility of the process.
However, the APC agent, Hamidu Gimba, denied the allegations, stating that no vote buying was taking place at the polling unit.
Gimba said that he had been present throughout the exercise and had not witnessed any incident of voting buying.
Meanwhile, the Presiding Officer at polling unit 002 in Gwagwalada area council, Mr Francis Ihyomna, denied the allegation of not issuing ballot papers serially, stressing that nothing of such was happening.
“I have been issuing the ballot paper serially to voters. We just started with ballot paper one and that is the one we are still using.
“We have not even skipped any number and had yet to record any incident of rejected paper,” Ihyomna said.
The presiding officer also confirmed the incident of missing names in the voter register.
Ihyomna described the issue as a slight omission, noting that the name of one voter identified as Aisha was missing from the register but was later found in another polling unit.
Earlier, the YPP agent had told reporters that some voters’ names were missing in the INEC register.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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