Vote buying, intimidation mar Ondo guber election — SDP’s Adebayo

The candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 presidential election, Prince Adewole Adebayo has described Saturday’s governorship election in Ondo State as a case of a willing seller meeting a willing buyer.

He held that the election was characterised with vote buying and intimidation of voters.

He bemoaned the level of electoral malfeasance that characterised the conduct of the election, as evidenced in the flagrant vote buying by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Adebayo specifically called out the APC, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security agencies, particularly the police for their roles in the electoral fraud.

He said: “The Ondo State governorship election of yesterday is what criminologists would term as victimless crimes: a spectacle of willing buyers meeting willing sellers in a perfect market that should be an example for Central Bank in the foreign exchange markets.

“Ondo auction is smoother than the Dutch auction. Four years sold so freely and openly that no one should lie that they were coerced or intimidated or browbeaten. And the Nigerian Police, INEC, all witnessed it live.”

He noted that the vote buying was so open that journalists do not need to interview anybody to confirm what transpired.

“No one should pretend that they need someone to interview over this. It is in order to congratulate the buyers on their purchased ‘victory’ while shedding some tears for the sellers with the Calvary elegy, ‘Father forgive them for they knoweth not what they do.’ God Bless Nigeria and may God guide Ondo State,” he submitted.