Election observers in Akwa Ibom on Monday 25th March, 2019 claimed that the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were guilty of vote buying during the last election. They made these claims while narrating their experiences in the just concluded general elections in the state.
One of the observer stated that at a post-election event tagged “Stakeholders’ Briefing on Niger Delta Watch 2019”, was organised by Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN), in collaboration with the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital vote-buying was a phenomenon in the elections. According to the observer, “The two major political parties, PDP and APC, struggled to outdo each other in the amount of money they were giving out to voters during the election.” He stated that one party, through its agent at the polling unit, was dishing out money in naira to voters, while the other party was paying in dollars. These claims were made at an event attended by more than 30 observers. However, most of the observers were of the opinion that the elections, though fraught with irregularities, was ‘generally’ free, fair, and credible.
At the end of the elections in the state the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won in all the elections in the state except for one local government area where the All Progressives Congress (APC) won the House of Assembly election.
According to the SDN team lead, Joseph Ekong, they monitored the elections in the 31 local government areas of Akwa Ibom State, tracking incidents that occurred with the intention of getting the information across to stakeholders like the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the police and other security agencies, as well as the media. Joseph Ekong stated that he was hopeful that the information gathered from the field and passed on to the stakeholders would be used for the purpose of improving future elections in the country.
According to a non-governmental agency (NGO) called Policy Alert, an NGO in Akwa Ibom, coordinated the monitoring of the elections in the state. In a statement by his executive director, Tijah Bolton-Akpan, elections in the state was characterised by violence, ballot-stealing, vote-buying, harassment of election observers and journalists, and the late arrival of voting materials. He added that their observer in Oruk Anam Local Government Area had to hide in the bush for several hours till around 9 p.m. for their own safety. He also added that, “In Ibiono Ibom, the PO (presiding officer) in one polling unit had to run through the bush to get to the collation centre. We had reports of thugs being arrested in hotels in Uyo, a day to elections.”
Tijah Bolton-Akpan also spoke about the razing of the local office of INEC, the burning down of buses conveying election materials in the state, and the cancellation of elections in some wards in Essien Udim and Udung Uko local government areas due to violence and other malpractices. He added that, “For fear of violence, there was a low turnout of voters in the governorship election in the state, compared to the presidential election.”
In his submission, Tijah Bolton-Akpan said INEC wasted much time in deploying election officials and materials for the elections. Also members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) who participated in the elections were kept in deplorable conditions which affected their performance in the elections.
He also scored INEC very low in terms of training by stating that, “The ad-hoc officials were not well-trained. There’s a need for voters to understand that what you give is what you get. It’s time the electorate takes the electoral process seriously. On the whole, the election in Akwa Ibom State in 2019 was an improvement on that of the 2015 elections. But there is much that still needs to be done.”
Apart from the challenges noticed in the election, there were some commendations of the process. A university lecturer in the department of sociology and anthropology, University of Uyo, Aniekan Brown, who attended the briefing, said INEC deserves some commendations for the 2019 elections in Akwa Ibom. According to him, the just concluded elections was “the nearest to the best” in the state. In his opinion INEC has done its best to educate voters in the state, it is left for political parties to take up the responsibility of voter-education.”
