A viral video shows a woman identified with the All Progressives Congress (APC) allegedly distributing salt and cash to residents in Osun State, days ahead of Saturday’s governorship election.
The video adds to a fast-growing list of clips circulating this week that appear to show party representatives handing out food items or money to residents while urging them to vote for specific candidates. The exact location, the identity of the woman involved, and how many residents received items has not been independently confirmed.
Not the First, and Unlikely to Be the Last
This is at least the second such video involving the APC to surface in the past few days alone, and it fits an even broader pattern that has defined campaigning across party lines ahead of Saturday’s vote.
On August 10, a widely shared video showed a woman identified as Alhaja Falilat Yusuf, also known as Ero-Arike, distributing bags of rice to residents while explicitly asking them to vote for APC governorship candidate Bola Oyebamiji. In the video, she told the crowd the rice had been provided by the wife of a former Osun State governor, a claim that could not be independently verified, and warned recipients against taking the food without following through on their vote. The clip drew mixed reactions, with some condemning it as election inducement and others noting that recipients would at least have food to eat.
Separately, Oyebamiji’s campaign has also faced criticism after images emerged showing campaign-branded bread bearing his name being prepared for distribution across parts of the state, again raising questions about whether the gesture was welfare support or vote inducement. A political group aligned with the APC, Peculiar Peoples Progress, also distributed cash and food to more than 200 households in Ayedire Local Government, with its convener describing the ₦10,000-per-household handouts as the group’s “usual way of reaching out to the people,” while also using the events to mobilise support for Oyebamiji.
The allegations are not confined to one party. The APC has separately accused Governor Ademola Adeleke’s Accord Party of administering oaths of allegiance to residents before allegedly inducing them with cash, sharing what it described as video evidence of the practice. The APC has also petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), alleging that the Osun State Government ran a “widespread vote-buying scheme” by asking residents for their bank account details in exchange for a ₦20,000 payment described by the government as a palliative measure for civil servants. Reports have also described both the Accord and the APC offering residents money in exchange for their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), with one voter telling reporters that Accord representatives recorded her PVC number, National Identification Number, and bank account details, though she said she had not yet received any funds.
Taken together, these incidents show a governorship race where both leading parties are accusing each other of exactly the same conduct, cash and food handouts tied explicitly to a vote, in the final days before Osun residents go to the polls.
Why Vote-Buying Keeps Showing Up in Nigerian Elections
Economic hardship makes small handouts persuasive. With food prices and living costs weighing heavily on many households, even modest cash or food gifts can carry real influence over a voter’s decision, regardless of legal prohibitions.
Enforcement rarely keeps pace with the practice. Despite vote-buying being illegal under Nigerian electoral law, prosecutions are rare, and parties on all sides continue the practice with little fear of real consequence.
Viral video culture now documents what once went unnoticed. Smartphones and social media have made it far easier for these exchanges to be filmed and circulated, turning what was once a quiet, localised practice into national news within hours.
Mutual accusations create a cycle of normalisation. When every party is accusing the other of the same conduct, it becomes easier for each to justify or downplay its own version of the practice as a response to what “the other side” is doing.
The effects reach beyond any single video going viral.
For voters, repeated exposure to cash-for-votes offers can erode the sense that their ballot reflects genuine political judgment rather than a transaction, particularly in a state where economic hardship is already a major campaign issue.
For the credibility of the election itself, widespread, well-documented allegations across multiple parties make it harder for the eventual result to be seen as a clean reflection of the electorate’s will, regardless of who wins.
For Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies, a steady stream of viral evidence and formal petitions puts pressure on bodies like the EFCC and ICPC to show they can act on vote-buying claims in real time, not just after an election has already been decided.
What Would Make a Difference
Real-time investigation, not post-election reports. Anti-graft and electoral agencies acting on viral evidence while campaigning is still active, rather than months after the election, would carry far more deterrent value.
Clear, consistent enforcement across all parties. Since allegations are being levelled at both the APC and the Accord, evenhanded investigation of all sides would help the process avoid looking politically selective.
Independent verification of viral claims. Given how quickly unverified claims spread, including disputed details like the source of the rice in the Ero-Arike video, independent, on-the-ground verification would help separate confirmed inducement from unproven allegations.
Stronger protections for voters approached for PVC or bank details. Given reports of residents being asked to hand over PVC numbers, NIN, and bank account details in exchange for promised payments, clearer public warnings about the risks of sharing this information could protect voters from both vote-buying and potential data misuse.
Where This Leaves Osun’s Election
We think what’s striking here isn’t any single video, it’s how many nearly identical ones have surfaced from competing parties in the same week. Rice, bread, salt, cash-for-PVCs, oath-taking ceremonies: the specific items change, but the underlying exchange being alleged is the same each time, a vote in return for something of immediate value.
With voting just days away, we don’t think any of this is likely to be fully investigated or resolved before Saturday. What voters are left with instead is a governorship race where accusations of buying support have become as prominent in the coverage as the candidates’ actual platforms, and that alone says something about the state of political competition in Osun right now.
Published by Ejoh Caleb
