"Vote buying and selling is an electoral offence."
Ahead of the July 16 governorship poll in Osun, the police have vowed to arrest and prosecute vote buyers and sellers on election day.
Johnson Kokumo, the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of the Osun governorship election, on Thursday said the police would leave no stone unturned to ensure that those involved in buying and selling votes were brought to book.
Mr Kokumo spoke at the end of the police interactive session with 'Accredited Election Observer Groups', NGOs, and the media.
"We will stop at nothing to fish them out wherever they are. We will arrest them and process them through the court," he said.
"Vote buying and selling is an electoral offence."
He appealed to the public to give the police credible information that would lead to the arrest of culprits, saying the appeal became necessary as vote buying and selling transactions were carried out in secrecy.
He said the people should call the police on the election dedicated phone lines: 08039537995, 08123823981, 08075872433, and 08067788119 when the incident of vote buying and selling and other electoral offences were noticed.
Movement restriction
Mr Kokumo said there would be no vehicular and human movements during the period of the state election on Saturday.
The DIG said though political players knew there was always restriction of movement during elections, it was pertinent to repeat and announce it so the general public would know it had been emplaced.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
He said human and vehicular movements would be restricted from 12 midnight on Saturday till 6.00 p.m. on the same date (election day) but essential workers and accredited election observers and media would be allowed to operate.
Speaking earlier on the preparation of security agencies for the election, Mr Kokumo said security agencies under the 'inter-agency consultative committee on election security' have met several times and worked out security arrangements for the election.
"I want to assure all and sundry that the police have the understanding, the cooperation and the collaboration of other security services.
"Specific duties had been rolled out for security agencies and the important thing is for us to achieve huge success at the polls."
He said adequate security arrangements and deployments had been made for the state's three senatorial districts, the 332 wards, and the 3,763 polling units.
"In the course of our deployment, we have officers on the ground, air deployment with helicopters, and have also deployed police marine on the waterways," he said.
