Why it’s difficult to arrest, prosecute vote buyers – ICPC

Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, the Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, says checking vote buying is a daunting task due to the large number of people involved in the act.
Owasanoye stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday in New York.
According to him, vote buying is so rampant and widespread in the country that it is difficult to arrest and prosecute offenders.
Besides, attempts to arrest vote buyers at polling units usually lead to clashes between armed thugs and security agents that endanger the lives of voters.
He suggested that more attention should rather be given to prevention through deployment of technologies and improvement in the country’s voting infrastructure.
He said: “When something is rampant like this, you can hardly eradicate it by enforcement measures alone.
“Take for example a situation where a whole a community, led by their leaders, reached an agreement to trade their votes.
“People were led by opinion leaders to say we must be paid for our votes. Now, can you arrest an entire community?
“Investigation and prosecution is very expensive, and the capacity to do all the available cases is severely limited.
“It is not possible to prosecute all the cases that are staring you in the face.
“So, you have to adopt preventive measures that help to diminish corruption much more vigorously than enforcement.”
To this end, the ICPC boss said the commission held a policy dialogue after the last general elections to identify effective ways to eliminate the problem.
One of the key recommendations at the forum, according to him, is the need to increase the role of technology in the voting process.
He said: “If you reduce the human interface, those who want to buy votes will realise that their money will be wasted.
“Secondly, the way the polling units are designed for now, they are too open.
“It is easy for somebody hanging around to actually spy or know how you voted or for the vote seller to display the ballot paper, pretending to fold it so that it can be seen that you voted as agreed.
“So, improving the infrastructure for voting to increase the confidentiality of the ballot is important.”
Owasanoye said ICPC is currently working on a policy paper in collaboration with other stakeholders to guide remedial measures.
Besides, he said the commission was also intensifying its public education and enlightenment activities to sensitise Nigerians against the implications of selling their votes.
He said: “The policy document we are drafting will also be able to look at who should be playing what role among all stakeholders.
“It will look at what role the political parties, INEC, law enforcement agencies, civil society and citizens themselves can play in the fight against vote buying.”