One of the election observersin Ekiti state, Mr. Paul James,from YIAGA, has said that people sold their votes during the governorship election for as low as N500.

He told the BBC Hausa Service on Saturday that from March 2022 till. date; money and other items were given to people during political occasions.

He said it has now changed as they now go from house to house giving people money.

“What this has shown is that politicians don’t like wasting time campaigning; what they now do is to buy people’s votes,” he said.

He said it was not only one political party that does that, adding that it’s so disheartening that they buy people’s vote for as low as N500.

However, an INEC official Hajiya Zainab Aminu told the BBC Hausa that they’ve taken steps to deal with the problem.

She said it is not permissiblefor people to use phones or snap pictures when they come to cast their vote at the polling stations.

She said people used to snap what they votedfor and showed it afterwards so as to collect money.

According to her, the commission was working together with EFCC and ICPC so as to apprehend those who floutthe election rules and get them punished in accordance to the offence they committed.(Vanguard)