Speakers at the special election lecture organized by Oyo State Chapter of Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC New Era have canvassed for proactive measures to be taken against vote buying as the elections draw near.
In a paper titled: 2019 Election: Vote Buying As A Threat To Free And Fair Elections And Democratic Consolidation In Nigeria by Dr Faleti Ademola, a Research Fellow from the Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ibadan he stated that out of the nine general elections held in Nigeria since independence only the elections of 1993 and 2015 could be said to be free and fair.
“History shows that Nigeria has had a chequered electoral history. Out of the nine general elections conducted since independence 1964/1965,1979,1983,1993,1999,2003,2007,2011 and 2015, only the 1993 and 2015 exercise could be said to be violence-free.
While the 2007 elections was described by both local and foreign observers as one that cast a harsh light on patterns of violence, corruption and outright criminality that become an integral part of Nigeria’s political system, the post-election violence, which trailed that of 2011 nearly drove Nigeria to the brink. By the time the dust settled, several lives have been lost and properties worth billions of Naira destroyed especially in the northern part of the country.
Ademola noted that vote-buying which is against the law of the land is gradually becoming the order of the day.
“Section 124 and 130 of the Electoral Act 2010 (As amended) clearly criminalise the act of vote-buying as bribery and conspiracy. Section 130 of the constitution clearly states: “ A person who (a) corruptly by himself or by any other person anytime after the date of an election has been announced, directly or indirectly gives or provides or pays money to or for any person for the purpose of corruptly influencing that person or any other person to vote or refrain from voting at such elections, or on account of such person or any other person having voted or refrained from voting at such election; or (b) being a voter, corruptly accepts or takes money or any other inducement during ang of the period stated in paragraph (a) of this Section commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of N100,000,00 or 12 months imprisonment or both.”
Ademola accused both the Peoples Democratic, Party, PDP and All Progressive Party, APC of being responsible for vote buying in Nigeria.
“The two major culprits were the APC and PDP. Vote-buying will deny the citizens quality representation in an electoral process.”
He therefore urged INEC to re-arrange booths in such a way that voters will not be well positioned to exhibit their ballot papers to outsiders after casting their ballots.
Other speakers who include Dr. Kola Adewoyin, Architect Muyiwa Ige, Comrade Wole Aina, Comrade Moshood Akande, Alhaji Olalekan Hammed,
Prince Lawal Kazeem, Dr Tunde Amusat and Mr Lawal Kehinde all agreed that vote-buying is a threat to the conduct of a free and fair election in the country.
They all concluded that INEC and other relevant agencies take proactive measures to prevent vote-buying in the forthcoming general elections.
The speakers also urged electorates to take note of the fact that whoever that pays money to secure their votes will no doubt abandonh them after winning such election.
The event had representatives of the ICPC, Directorate of the State Security Services, DSS and other pressure groups.