Published 18th Jun, 2022

By Emmanuel Uti

Operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have been alleged to have stormed Ward 10 Unit 9, a polling unit in Ilupeju, along the Ikere-Ado Ekiti expressway, Ikere Local Government Area of Ekiti State, to steal money.

The PUNCH reported that the presence of the NSCDC officers caused disorder at the polling unit.

A voter at the unit revealed that the NSCDC officials hijacked over N2 million meant to buy votes for the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the state.

He said voters who had voted for their candidate in the unit fled in irritation since they were unable to get payment for the ‘work’ done.

“They (NSCDC officers) stormed this unit and harassed the person holding the money. They collected the money from him and took it away. We who voted for APC and were waiting to collect our money could not get the money. It is disappointing. We were told that the money was over N2 million,” he was quoted to have said.

He added that other voters who intended to sell their votes to the ruling party collected money from another party and voted for them.

When Funminiyi Afuye, the Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, heard about what happened, he rushed to the unit with his security team.

Afuye said that as the speaker of the state assembly, he had the authority to supervise the progress of the procedure wherever he was, even if he was not in at his own unit.

“I have voted in my unit and I was just going round to see if there is one problem or the other, but there is no crisis, no violence. People can just stampede because they want to vote, instead of them to line up and spend less time but they may crowd a place and you know that is part of our culture. But the people have been conducting themselves well,” he said.

“By virtue of my position as the chief lawmaker of the state, the moment I don’t go and tampered with whatever they are doing, I’m observing, there is no problem. The only time I went there is when they said they wanted to confirm the number of the machines that’s all.”

The speaker also said he knew nothing about money allegedly snatched by the security agents, saying the alleged money was not from his party, the APC.

“I am not aware of that, I wasn’t here then, and if they were snatching money, they are not snatching from my party. No violence has been reported to me,” he said.

Afolabi Tolulope, the Public Relations Officer of the Ekiti State command of the NSCDC, claimed he was unaware of the occurrence since he had not yet arrived at the office.

Share on Social Media