An aspirant for Kogi Central Senatorial seat under the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Hon. Abdulkarim Salihu, has charged the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC ) Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu to as a matter of urgency address the issue of vote buying during election.
The former two term member of the House of Representatives called on the INEC boss to tackle the scourge before it damages the country’s hard earned democracy.
Salihu who gave the charge on Monday while submitting his nomination form at the Kogi PDP secretariat in Lokoja, said the conduct of the governorship election in Ekiti State recently, served as wake up call to the electoral umpire to be awake to its responsibility of discouraging vote buying in order to protect democracy and give credence to the Nigeria’s electoral process.
According to him: “What happened in Ekiti during the governorship election is enough signal that our democracy is nosediving and requires urgent measures to nip it in the bud so that such act will not take the centre stage in our country’s democracy.
Vote buying is one of the major challenges that will affect the integrity of the 2019 elections, as it will not allow the electorate to support and vote for the candidates of their choice and if this is not discouraged, elections in Nigeria will lose credibility and where there is no credibility in an election, the desired dividends of democracy will not be enjoyed by Nigerians, as the politicians would gear their effort in recovering the money spent during the election.”
He said the situation where the ruling party in the state prevented the opposition from organising activities in the state, noting that democracy cannot thrive in the absence of a strong and virile opposition, to checkmate the activities of the ruling party.
“I have never seen in modern political civilization where the opposition parties are not allow to conduct their activities; the beauty of democracy is when the ruling party is being checkmated, in order to fulfil electioneering campaign.
“All these are happening because of poverty of ideas and by the time the ruling party knows the enormity of their actions, they will allow the opposition parties to thrive in the state and the country at large,” he noted.
On his mission and vision for his constituency if given the opportunity, Hon. Salihu said he will introduce a need assessment committee where the people will have an input on the types of projects they needed, noting that the era of sharing motorcycles and sewing machine is over.
While calling on the electorate to vote according to their conscience during elections, the aspirant urged INEC to do the needful during elections.
