Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has instructed security agencies, particularly the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to pursue individuals planning to engage in vote-buying before and during the governorship election in Edo State.... CLICK TO READ THE FULL NEWS HERE▶▶
Yakubu made the appeal during a meeting with members of the Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) in Benin, the state capital, on Tuesday, September 10.
He emphasized the local and international interest in the Edo State Governorship election and highlighted the threat and dangers posed by vote-buying to Nigeria’s democratic process.
Yakubu urged the ICPC and EFCC to implement effective strategies to combat this growing concern.
His words, “You need to deploy a strategy for combating vote buying. It has been a feature in our elections and the more INEC improves on the processes, the more some people try to beat the process by now going to buy the votes at the polling units.
“In any case, if people are buying votes, it means that the votes are counting, that is why they are buying the votes, but we can’t allow vote buyers to determine who wins our democratic elections. It is a democracy of the people, by the people, for the people and not a plutocracy which is only open for the rich”.
