Kogi Governorship: My experience as an observer

This is the report on the observation of the Kogi governorship election in Dekina local government area.

Dekina local government area is one of the 21 local government areas in the confluence state and the largest in West Africa.

Pre-election observation

I observed that although the materials were distributed early enough at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office, they did not get to some of the Registration Area Centres until nightfall. The delay was owing to the unavailability of vehicles to convey the ad-hoc staff and the election materials to the designated venues.

In fact, as at 7:00pm on the election eve, only four out of the thirteen wards had the necessary materials and staff transported to the RACs.

This had a terrible effect as one of the RAC was raided by armed men with the sensitive materials carted away while the electoral officers were trying to settle down in the middle of the night. 

However, unlike previous elections, the Dekina local government was not heavily militarised. 

 Election day observation

Based on the delay blamed on logistics issues, the polls were not opened on time. Some of the polling units were opened as late as 10:00am on the election day.

When I got to Our Lady of Schools in Ayingba town, the electoral officers were still looking for buses to convey them to their various polling units as at 8:15am.

Asides the delay, the election day was marred by harassment of the electorate by security operatives and thugs.

In Odu-Ogbeyaga, where the People's Democratic Party candidate voted, there were gunshots at intervals by a security aide allegedly attached to the candidate.

He was shooting into the air to scare voters and intimidate observers. Meanwhile, a massive thumbprinting by a supporter of the PDP was ongoing. Over 50 ballot papers were thumbprinted and cast by this fellow in the presence of police and civil defense operatives, and INEC ad-hoc staff.

 In the local government INEC headquarters, some suspected thugs attacked some officers with the election materials on their way from the ward collation centre. This resulted in sporadic shooting till the point that myself and a colleague ran into hiding.

Moreover in some places like polling unit 1 in Dekina ward, the ad-hoc staff had to run for their lives when they got a security information about a possible attack. The votes for this polling unit were counted at the ward collation centre. This does not promote transparency and accountability.

Although there were cases of vote-buying done through clandestine means, I observed that an APC supporter was writing down names of people who voted for them in polling unit 12, ward 10. The one collating the names parades the polling booth to peep at the choices of the voters.

Recommendations

I will recommend that the electoral commission make adequate arrangements for logistics in subsequent elections.

In addition, the security operatives and INEC staff culpable of electoral fraud should be prosecuted with the information provided by observers as regards the conduct of the poll.

Moreover, there is need for the election commission to strengthen the partnership with anti-graft agencies so as to check the flow of money for vote-buying.

Lastly, there is need to review the electoral act to accommodate some innovations like electronic voting in order to prevent violence and other issues associated with physical voting.