- Groups counsel against vote-buying
The President, Women Arise for Change Initiative, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, on Friday urged the electorate in Osun state to reject any form of inducement by politicians during Saturday’s governorship election.
Speaking to newsmen in Osogbo, she lamented that the act of voter inducement and vote buying was gaining ground in the country’s elections.
She then called on the voters in Osun to engage governorship candidates based on issues and only vote for parties and candidates with a clear agenda for the development of the state.
According to her, the group had employed, trained and would be deploying many of its observers, across the 30 local government areas of Osun State to observe the election.
“As we all look forward to the election, we cannot but alert Nigerians of the fact that the act of voter inducement and vote buying is gaining ground in our elections.
“We are therefore using this medium, to urge Osun State voters to reject any form of inducement by politicians but should rather engage the Governorship candidates based on issues that they care about and only vote for parties and candidates who have a clear agenda for the development of Osun State.
“We do hope, that this election, will stand as another true test, for us as Nigerians, as we prepare for the crucial 2023 General election in the country,” she concluded.
Groups counsel Osun voters against vote-buying
Also, election monitoring and observation groups, HEDA Resource Centre and Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, on Friday, advised voters in Saturday’s Osun State governorship election against trading their God-given rights to choose their leader.
The Chairman, HEDA Resource Centre, Olanrewaju Suraju and WARDC Executive Director, Dr Abiola Akiode-Afolabi, who said the Osun governorship election would be yet another test for Nigeria’s democratic consolidation and citizens’ fidelity to laws and rules guiding the electoral process, harped on the need to discourage vote-buying.
Speaking at a press conference in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, Suraju and Akiode-Afolabi renewed call on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and other law enforcement agencies not to stop at arresting and prosecuting party agents involved in vote-buying, “but should also ensure to shine the spotlight on their sponsors.”
They said, “The issue of vote-buying remains about the biggest threat to a credible election in Nigeria and it remains a leading cause for concern as the country edges close to the 2023 General Election.”
Suraju and Akiode-Afolabi charged Osun voters to “come out en-masse to cast their votes and be part of selecting their own leader for the next four years through a credible electoral process. This God-given right should be honoured and not traded. It is not a commodity to sell, but a right to be exercised. Selling vote is criminal, casting it is the ideal.
“The implication of vote-buying is far reaching – it makes it difficult to call leaders to account since they paid their ways to the position occupied and beyond that, it affects the economy and living conditions as leaders would have no moral obligation to make life better for the citizens.
“Making public office holders accountable becomes negatively affected where the processes informing their emergence were largely compromised by vote-buying. Under such circumstances, the grip of corruption becomes quick to sight and preventing such becomes a difficult necessity,” they said.
The groups hailed security and anti-graft agencies for heeding the call to stem the tide of vote-buying, saying, “As reported in the news, the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies, including the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, have announced their readiness to man the election with sufficient manpower to forestall any eventualities of vote-buying.
“It was also reported that the deployment of police personnel will be complemented by soldiers and civil defence corps. The Police Force has also promised to deploy the Federal Intelligence Bureau, Tactical Corps and the Special Forces to curb vote-buying. The Inspector-General of Police, Baba Alkali, had warned that the police would not take it lightly with persons or groups seeking to perpetrate vote-buying or any form of inducement in the elections,” they said.
The Punch
