Osun Election: INEC elucidates prohibition on telephone utilization, cautions against vote-purchasing

Under 24 hours to the governorship decision in Osun State, the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Olusegun Agbaje, has cautioned lawmakers not to misjudge the commission's constituent guidelines for their narrow minded points.

Agbaje was responding to the affirmations that the commission had set an aggregate prohibition on the use of cell phones and cameras at surveying units.

Talking on Friday at a question and answer session at the commission's office in Osogbo, the state capital, the REC said it was not genuine that the commission had requested that voters not come to surveying units with their telephones.

He cleared up that the commission just requested that voters not hold their telephones inside the voting desk area, in an offer to control vote-purchasing, a wonder that has damaged decisions previously.

He stated, "It is essential to by and by eliminate any confusion air on some ridiculous affirmations being hawked around by some basic partners, for example, the forbidding of telephones and different cameras at the surveying unit; giving out of uncollected Permanent Voter Cards to a specific political gathering; setting up the Smart Card Readers to support a specific political gathering; and that INEC will be one-sided amid the decision.

"The affirmations are not valid. They are illusions of the creative energies of those that influenced them, as they to have not possessed the capacity to substantiate them as I address you. INEC did not put a prohibition on telephones and other camera gadgets at the surveying units.

"What INEC said is that voters ought not convey their telephones or other camera gadgets into the voting work spaces where the voter will check the tally in order to protect the mystery of the poll.

"Voters are allowed to accompany their telephones and other camera gadgets; we are stating that at the work space where they will cast their votes, they can't be permitted to run in with anything aside from the voting materials."

Agbaje likewise cautioned government officials and voters against vote-purchasing, and vote-offering, saying the commission was prepared to release the full fierceness of the law on anybody found doing as such.