The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan, on Saturday said the umpire has partnered anti graft agencies and other financial institutions with a view to tackle the vote buying during the August 15 gubernatorial poll in Osun State.

He noted that the menace of vote buying among desperate political actors had gone beyond physical cash transfer to digital transfer of money in order to induce voters before and during the election.

Amupitan, who made this disclosure during an interactive session with journalists at the INEC office in Osogbo, “we recognise that vote-buying has increasingly shifted from physical cash exchanges at polling units to digital financial transfers and pre-election account harvesting.”

In response, the INEC boss disclosed that the umpire was already in partnership directly with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to track digital transfer to voters.

“We may also leverage the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), and we are also in discussion with the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation on how to combat this menace. Plainclothes anti-corruption officers will monitor the perimeters of polling units to arrest both buyers and sellers of votes, “the INEC boss hinted.

Describing media as critical stakeholders in the conduct of credible elections, Amupitan called for accurate, unbiased and fair reportage of electoral activities.

He, however, allayed the fears of the public over the malfunctioning of some Biometric Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) devices during its INEC mock registration exercise conducted in some local government areas, assuring that the hitch had been resolved.

“The only problem we have is what it has to do with those old PVCs that are almost defaced. Because some of these cards were issued since 2011. Recall that the commission wanted to do the validation. That was one of the reasons.

“So that you can update your pictures, some of those old pictures, the BVAS were unable to capture them. When we noticed that, that was reported, and the technical team led by the ICT director had to work on what was similarity score.

“So the similarity score was now made appropriate to capture both the new and the old card, and that worked automatically as it was done. It was downloaded, the problem was solved, and like I said, it was solved for good. It will never happen again,” Amupitan explained.