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BY SUNNY A. DAVID
There is serious vote buying by leading political parties in the Ogbaru Federal Constituency supplementary election in Anambra State.
This is as three of the leading political parties in the election have also unleashed thugs in various parts of the local government, where the election is being conducted.
Many voting centres visited by our correspondent within the Local Government Area, witnessed huge influx of thugs, despite the massive deployment of security officials, including Police, Navy and Army personnel.
At Manus Primary School, Okpoko Ward 6, suspected thugs, said to be working for the PDP candidate in the election, swooped on journalists who were riding in a vehicle with government number plate, suspecting them to be agents of the ruling party, All Progressives Grand Alliance, (APGA).
Also, at Okpoko Ward 3, polling unit 004 at St Luke’s Anglican Church, agents of the the PDP and APGA were seen in their camps, where they were making payments to voters who voted for their parties.
A journalist, Mr. Eleke David was mistaken for a voter by canvassers of the PDP, and was put on the queue for payment, after he agreed to enquiries from the agents that he voted for their party.
The leading candidates in the election and their political parties are: Hon Afam Ogene of LP, Chuchu Onyema of PDP and Hon Arinze Awogu of APGA.
When visits to the various polling units across the Ogbaru Council Area revealed that some of the registered voters who had exhausted their patience had gone home, while some who went home earlier had returned the second time, before the arrival of the electoral officials, who just drove into the venues just few minutes ago, including the Iyiowa Odekpe ward, where the officials arrived at about 10:27am, against the 8.am scheduled time for commencement of the exercise.
A concerned citizen in the Kala area of the Constituency, Paschal Candle, also told this reporter that the area had been taken over by the officials of the Department of State Service (DSS), who are on ground to ensure smooth conduct of the exercise.
He further hinted that some political thugs had been arrested in the area, following their threats and gallivanting to disrupt the election.
Aside these, further updates revealed that massive vote buying is currently ongoing at many polling units in the area, most especially at Okpoko community, where the moneybags currently buy one at the tune of ₦10,000.
It was gathered that some voters have smartly collected up to ₦50,000 each on a rotational basis for their individual votes.
Some of the residents of the community who spoke to 247ureports under the condition of anonymity decried the act as illegal deal, while also calling for more security presence in the area to end the surreptitious fraudulent act.
