INEC dashes hopes of politicians buying PVCs •Politicians devise new methods

AMID fever pitch tension ahead next Saturday’s crucial presidential and National Assembly election in the country; some politicians have devised new methods to outwit the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on vote-buying and other sharp electoral malpractices.

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Checks by Sunday Tribune indicated that the new methods do not include the purchase of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), which has been reported to have been on the increase across the country.

A PVC, according to reports, is being sold for between N5000 and N10,000, with officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) raising the alarm on the pressure being mounted on them by some politicians to procure uncollected PVCs.

However, Sunday Tribune can authoritatively report that politicians have moved beyond PVC buying to hatch a new method to circumvent due process in the coming elections.

The new method, it was gathered, is activated by the politicians during house-to-house campaigns, where they would pin down opinion molders in the area/compounds and give them certain amount of money for distribution to their family members or neighbours ahead of the election, with a promise to double that amount if they voted for a particular party.

An interaction with voters in Kano revealed that opinion leaders contracted by the politicians would be told to help them convince a large number of voters who they believe would not disappoint them during election and these opinion leaders would be given some amounts which would then be distributed to ‘converts,’ saying that a particular party had given the amount to assist them in their trading.

“After giving their people the purported amount, the opinion leaders will then tell them that the very party that brought the gift will also double the amount for them if they can vote for the candidate of such party in the election,” a source told Sunday Tribune on the condition of anonymity.

Aside from this method, it was learnt that some elected members of some political parties in Kano State had also adopted the system by gathering some supporters from their constituency and doling out N10,000 to selected people as a way of ‘assisting them in their trading,’ with most of the beneficiaries being women.

While speaking with some of electorate on the issue of vote buying, most of them admitted that some political parties had approached them and promised to give them certain amounts of money during the election.

However, while speaking with the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in charge of Kano State, Professor Riskuwa Arabu Shehu, on the issue of the buying of PVC by politicians, he said as far as he was concerned, no party had approached him to buy PVC.

He also threatened that any INEC staff caught in such shady deal would not only be sacked, but also prosecuted in accordance with the law guiding elections.

He added that anyone who buys PVC with the aim of using it to vote during election would be wasting his time, because the card reader will reject any card that is not brought by a respective owner.

“All PVCs have been configured to the perspective owner and a PVC can only be used by the real owner,” he said, adding that it will not be easy for someone to use another person’s PVC,” he said.