The All Progressives Congress and Governor Ademola Adeleke-led Accord party deployed over N100bn in the August 15 governorship election in Osun State.
Punch reports that the funds were channelled into campaign materials, vote buying, payments of agents, canvassers, security personnel and electoral officers in the 3,763 polling units and 332 wards of the state.
The estimated expenses exceeded the N3bn limit set by the Electoral Act 2026 for each of the governorship candidates.
Adeleke polled a total of 511,067 votes to defeat his arch-rival, Bola Oyebamiji of the APC, who received 444,815 votes.
Expenses on agents
Saturday PUNCH confirmed from multiple sources that each agent of the APC who supervised the election at their various polling units was paid N100,000, while Accord party agents received N20,000 each.
Four other agents of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, New Nigeria Peoples Party, Allied Peoples Movement and All Progressives Grand Alliance enlisted by Accord were paid N20,000 each.
That means Accord also expended N100,000 on party agents in each unit.
Osun has a total of 3,763 polling units, 332 political wards and 30 local governments and one Area Office.
A multiplication of N100,000 by 3,763 gives a total of N376.3m, and N752.6m if the latter sum is multiplied by two (for APC and Accord).
Similarly, findings by Saturday PUNCH revealed that the African Democratic Congress paid N30,000 to some of the agents.
According to an official of the party who spoke on condition of anonymity, the agents were paid on Thursday, while some received their money on Friday.
However, the payment did not cut across all the units, making it difficult to calculate the total amount spent by the party on the agents.
Each of the ward collation officers of the APC, according to party officials involved in the election process, was paid N120,000, which amounts to N39.84m for the 332 wards.
Also, our correspondents learnt that the security team, comprising police, civil defence and Federal Road Safety Commission officers in each of the polling units was paid N100,000, while Accord gave them N80,000.
Also, the security team received another N50,000 from the state government, according to multiple officers who participated in the election.
The total accountable sum spent on the security personnel across the polling units by the APC, Accord and the state government amounted to N865.49m.
Apart from that, each top police officer was reportedly paid N2m by the APC, totalling N62m across the 30 LGs and area councils.
Vote buying
For vote buying, both parties spent billions of naira a few days before and during the election.
Findings by Saturday PUNCH revealed that the original amount allocated and disbursed for vote buying by APC was N40,000 per voter.
A former local government chairman and chieftain of the party in Ila Federal Constituency said the party spent billions to buy votes.
“We saw money and we started dancing. It was a huge amount of money in my local government. I have never seen such money in my entire political career. We received between N80m and N100m to spend on voters. Some local governments received N500m each,” he said on condition of anonymity on Thursday.
Analysing the vote-buying template, the chieftain said, “Our target was 150 voters per unit, apart from the party members. We were to spend N40,000 at 15-15-10. Each voter was supposed to collect N15,000 twice before election day and N10,000 on the election day. But some of our people didn’t follow that template. The N40,000 per voter was disbursed from the state and some of us actually spent on the targeted voters.
The total amount allegedly spent by the APC on vote buying amounted to N22.578bn.
According to many party members, the APC appointed 30 canvassers in every unit and paid each of them N10,000.
That amounts to N1.1289bn.
For Accord, an average of 150 voters were also targeted at N20,000 each in each polling unit.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the party appointed 30 canvassers with a mandate of getting 10 voters each at the initial stage.
However, because many of the polling units didn’t have up to 300 voters, the minimum number of voters to be paid by the canvassers was reportedly reduced to 150.
A multiplication of 150 voters by N20,000 totals N3m in each unit and amounts to N11.289bn if multiplied by 3,763, the total number of polling units.
A senior special assistant to Adeleke who spoke with Saturday PUNCH on condition of anonymity on Thursday confirmed the amount but explained that the party did not disburse the money on election day.
He also disclosed that each of the canvassers was paid N10,000, amounting to N1.1289bn across the state.
“The party disbursed N20,000 per vote and each canvasser was to get 10 voters per unit. We had 30 canvassers in every unit. But the target was reduced to 150 on the average. In my unit, the total number of voters was 128. Some Accord members even collected the money, but the money was disbursed before the election day.
“By my estimation, Accord wouldn’t have spent less than N40bn for that election,” he said.
Findings by Saturday PUNCH showed that some voters were paid as high as N80,000 in some polling units.
It was gathered that at polling unit 001, Coop. Building Junction, Isare, Ward 08, Ilesa East Local Government Area, where former governor Rauf Aregbesola voted, each voter was offered N70,000.
The APC won the unit after securing 256 votes, while Accord came second with 43 votes. ADC received just 13 votes at the unit.
Also, at the unit of a former Deputy Chief of Staff to the governor, Abdullahi Binuyo in Ward 10, Odo-Otin LG, a vote was reportedly bought at N80,000 around 12pm on the election day.
An Accord insider said some chieftains still had money in their homes.
The source said, “The money was huge and we couldn’t finish it all. After the election, about a billion naira was still left idle in a party leader’s house. They had to move the money to another location, the house of another leader, for safekeeping.”
Payment to electoral officers
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the electoral officers in each unit also benefited from the lavishness of the political parties.
According to multiple sources, both Accord and APC paid between N150,000 and N300,000 to the electoral team across all the units in the state.
Speaking with our correspondent on condition of anonymity, a former APC lawmaker in the state disclosed that the party expended a minimum of N400,000 on security and electoral officers in each unit.
He broke down the figure, explaining that the electoral officials were given N300,000, while the security team received N100,000.
The ex-lawmaker said, “In my unit in Osogbo LG, we deployed over N400,000. The electoral officers were also given N300,000 – N150,000 for the team lead and N150,000 for the ad hoc staff. The security team in each unit across the state was given N100,000.
“I’m aware that a total of N36bn was raised by governors, ministers, senators and others in support of the APC for the election. That was different from the direct funds from the Presidency, Oyetola (the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy) and his immediate team, the party and others.
“I had to conclude that Adeleke is a man of destiny for him to have won that election despite the huge amount of money we spent and the use of security.”
Confirming the amount, a member of the security and mobilisation committee of the APC said, “That was the template across the state. I can correctly say that between N4m and N5m was deployed to each unit for that purpose.”
If the N300,000 given to electoral officers was multiplied by the 3,763 polling units, it amounts to N1.1289bn.
Similarly, the senior special assistant to Adeleke also confirmed that Accord “reached out” to the electoral officers but couldn’t confirm the amount given to them.
