Businessman Deji Adeleke has alleged that the All Progressives Congress spent about N60bn on vote-buying during the Osun governorship election.
Adeleke, the father of Afrobeats singer Davido, also claimed that some voters received as much as N50,000 for a single vote. Speaking in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, he said the reports of vote-buying prompted him to pray on election day.
Adeleke speaks on alleged vote-buying
Adeleke said he returned to his room after hearing about the money allegedly spent to influence voters. He said he knelt down and prayed for voters to collect the money but still support his brother, Governor Ademola Adeleke.
“On the day of the election, when I heard about the kind of money they were spending, I went back to my little corner in my room and I knelt down and I prayed to God Almighty,” he said.
He explained that his prayer was for voters to accept the money offered to them while still voting for Ademola Adeleke.
“I said, ‘God Almighty, let people collect their money but still vote for Ademola Adeleke.’”
Adeleke further claimed that the APC spent about N60bn during the election, with some voters allegedly offered N50,000.
“They spent N60 billion as we heard. Some places they bought votes for as high as 50,000, for one single vote,” he said.
Adeleke defeats APC candidate
Governor Ademola Adeleke won the election with 511,067 votes, while the APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, polled 444,815 votes. The election also drew allegations of vote-buying and other irregularities in some areas of the state. However, the claims about the N60bn expenditure and N50,000 payments were not independently verified.
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