OsunDecides2022: ‘Peace Accord’ Should Include Commitment Against Vote-Buying – ICPC
Adedokun Waliyu 
The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) has called for the inclusion of commitment against vote-buying in the Peace Accord signed by candidates of political parties ahead of election days.
The latest episode of the programme was titled ‘#OsunDecides: Lessons learnt from the Ekiti governorship elections’.
Other speakers at the event included Tobi Oluwatola, the Executive Director of the Centre for Journalism, Innovation and Development (CJID), Samson Itodo, the Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, and Ene Obi, convener of the Civil Societies Situation Room.
It had earlier been reported that 13 political parties signed the Peace Accord for peaceful conduct ahead of Saturday’s governorship election in Osun State.
The Labour Party was absent at the venue of the peace accord meeting held in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, on Wednesday.
The ceremony is organised by the National Peace Committee led by a former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar, and a cleric, Mathew Kukah.
The ICPC said its operatives would be on ground to monitor vote buying and arrest suspects during the Osun governorship election.
Mrs Ogugua said the officers would be deployed from the ICPC’s office in Osun State and its South-west zonal office. She added that they would be supported by officers from its headquarters in Abuja.
The official who said she was unaware of the precise number of officers to be deployed, assured that an adequate number of officers would be stationed across the three senatorial districts to provide effective coverage of the election.
“As you all know, ICPC monitored the last election in Ekiti State and we are set to monitor the Osun elections coming up this Saturday.
“Our work in election monitoring is to track vote buying. In the last election, we noticed they were a lot of vote buying going on at all levels.
- “The ICPC would be deploying officers from our zonal office in Osun, supported by staff across our Southwest states. And a few of us from Abuja would also join the team of officers.”
