INEC can’t stop vote buying ― Kogi REC

THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Wednesday, said there was little or nothing it could do to prevent the current wave of vote buying in the nation.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Kogi State, Prof James Apam, said this in Lokoja, the state capital during a stakeholders’ meeting towards the Lokoja/Kogi federal constituency bye-election scheduled for Saturday.

He said the commission could do nothing to prevent people who have made up their minds to sell their votes or politicians who have decided to pay for votes.

He said in such circumstance, the commission would be handicapped to guarantee election totally devoid of vote buying as it did not have an arrangement that could restrain politicians from such act.

Stakeholders at the meeting had expressed concern over the menace of vote buying as it was experienced during the last governorship election in Ekiti state. He said, “How do you prevent someone who took a camera into the voting cubicle to snap the ballot paper to indicate he or she had voted for the party he was paid for and later showed it to the party agent and get paid”. He, however, tasked various political parties to increase the level of raising their enlightenment campaigns and education of voters not to sell their votes.

Speaking on the bye-election, Apam said non-sensitive materials for the poll would be distributed today (Thursday) to the local government offices of the commission.

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The REC said the election would be conducted in 310 polling units/ voting points in 21 registration areas in two local government areas. The REC said that 9 candidates from Accord party, African Democratic Congress, (ADC), All Progressive Congress, (APC), Democratic Alternative ,(DA),Labour Party (LP), Mega Party of Nigeria, (MPN), National Conscience Party, (NCP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Social Democratic party, (SDP).

He said that out of the 174,381 printed voters cards ready for collection in Kogi state, Lokoja has 125,779 registered voters while Kogi, Koton-Karfe has 48,611, all of which were eligible to vote.

He, however, expressed disappointment at the low rate of collection of permanent voters cards and urged those yet to register or collect their PVCs to come forward to collect theirs before the registration is suspended on the 27 August.