Senator Yemi Adaramodu, who represents Ekiti South and is the Senate spokesperson, has dismissed allegations that members of the ruling All Progressives Congress ( APC), engaged in vote buying during the ongoing Ekiti State governorship election.
Adaramodu described the claims as “baseless and mischievous,” alleging they were being spread by opposition parties seeking to discredit the electoral process.
He spoke to journalists on Saturday after casting his vote at Unit 1, Ward 11, Ilawe Ekiti.
According to him, there was no evidence of vote buying at polling units, insisting the allegations were mere excuses from parties that lacked public support.
“You can see, you can look around. Have you ever seen anybody retailing votes for sale? Have you seen anybody exchanging votes for money? Where is it?” he asked.
“Because when somebody is about to lose an election, you see all these kinds of frivolous allegations… Now you see people smiling. They don’t look like people who are forced to vote, who are coerced to vote, whose votes were bought.”
He said voters were fulfilling their civic responsibility and that he had never heard of any vote-buying incident. “APC will never… the only thing we need to do to convince the electorate is to perform very well… After doing all those things, then we wait for D‑Day. And D‑Day is always election day.”
Adaramodu urged anyone with evidence to present it, and suggested the opposition might be trying to buy votes but could not find willing sellers.
“Maybe the other people, the other side, because they are not popular, they are not on the ground, maybe they wanted to buy votes and nobody was ready to sell votes to them.”
He, however, commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), security agencies and other stakeholders for ensuring a peaceful and hitch-free electoral process across the state.
