By VICTOR ADEOTI

An election monitoring group, YIAGA Africa, has identified suspected threats to the peaceful conduct of the Osun governorship election scheduled for July 16.

It told newsmen in Osogbo on Wednesday that recent escalation in the activities of political thugs, cultism, and voter inducement were potential threats.

It commended recent arrest of some political thugs, but added that there was an urgent need for more intelligence to be deployed in addressing the rising threats and ensure more arrests and prosecution of culprits.

The submissions were made by YIAGA Africa’s Director of Programme, Ms Cynthia Mbamalu.

“Yiaga Africa’s pre-election reports have revealed the activities of cultists and political thugs in some local government areas as capable of threatening the peaceful and credible conduct of the election, if not contained.

“In addition to these threats, there are also attempts by some political mercenaries to manipulate the process right from the pre-election stage.

“In spite of the foregoing, the preparation for the Osun governorship election has seen a religious implementation of the electoral timeline by INEC,” she said.

She said the critical job of effectively securing citizens, electoral materials and stakeholders without any bias should remain a priority for security agencies before the election.

Mbamalu added that the rate of voter inducement across the state was on the increase.

She noted that if the practice of vote merchandising was not curbed, it would consistently delegitimise political mandate and undermine the electoral process.

She said the group was also concerned about the uncouth and unguarded utterances by some political actors in the state in their efforts to woo voters.

“There is no doubt that these desperate utterances by major actors going into the election demonstrate a lack of caution and sportsmanship.

“This is capable of not just intimidating prospective voters, but also inflaming the political environment, if not checked.

“We call on these actors, especially those of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to exercise restraint and advise their supporters to play by the rules,” she stressed.

Mbamalu also commended INEC on its efforts on Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) collection by old and new registrants.

She said: “however, we are concerned about the strategies deployed to ensure that the more than 333,179 newly-produced Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) are collected by voters before July 16.

“The PVCs are currently being collected at the local government councils’ offices.

“Reports from the `Watch The Vote Long Term Observers’ (WTV LTOs) reveal that prospective voters are crowding some INEC Local Government Area offices with little hope of getting their PVCs before the election.”

In his remarks, a YIAGA Africa board member, Ezenwa Nwangu, commended INEC for its preparatory activities and called on it to provide better oversight at its local government areas offices.

He charged security agencies to ensure that all personnel deployed for the election were adequately trained and operated with all sense of responsibility, professionalism and neutrality.

“Security agencies should ensure the arrest and prosecution of those involved in any form of violence and voter inducement in the days leading to the election.

“Security agencies, especially the police, should publicise telephone hotlines for citizens to register complaints, report incidents, or access information on the election,” he said.

Nwagwu also said the distribution of money, gifts and food items by political parties and candidates to induce voters featured throughout the campaign period.

This, he added, was observed and reported by the group’s Long Term Observers.

“This ugly trend is undermining the credibility of electoral mandates.

“During this reporting period, more events associated with voter inducement were reported in Ife Central, Ife North, Ifedayo, Ilesa West and Odo-Otin local government areas.

“Specifically, food items such as garri and beans were seen being distributed to people as a campaign strategy in these local government areas,” Nwagwu said. (NAN)

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