A pro-democracy activist, Mr Idris Miliki, has called on voters to guard against monetary inducement and vote buying/selling during the forthcoming Kogi governorship election.
Miliki, who is the Executive Director, Conscience for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution (CHRCR), made the call in Lokoja while speaking at a one-day Capacity-Building workshop for Community Based Organisations (CBOs) in Lokoja/Kogi-Koton-Karfe Federal Constituency tagged “Anti-Corruption, Transparency and Accountability during Elections”.
He warned that selling their votes was tantamount to sale of mandate, conscience and the future of children yet unborn and development of the country.
“Don’t allow anybody to influence your votes through monetary inducement. Do the Risks Assessment of monies presented to you for the votes,” he warned.
The executive director wondered why anyone who wanted to serve would have to bribe the people to allow him serve them, saying, “If I want to serve you, why do I have to give you money to allow me serve you if I don’t have ulterior motives.
“As a result of selfish interests, every election now has some elements of corruption be it community leadership election, market women election, Students Union election and even king makers fall for one form of inducement or another,” he said.
He called on INEC, political parties and other stakeholders to stop dragging electoral activities especially votes collation, counting and other sensitive activities during elections into late nights where credibility of such exercise would be questioned.
According to him, conduct of party primaries and other sundry electoral and political activities in the night make them vulnerable, and that it smacks of lack of transparency and accountability.
He urged media practitioners to guard against engaging in speculative and sensational reporting as well as publication of hate speech, fake news, misinformation, disinformation and should balance their reports.
He called on the authorities to ensure that those found culpable in perpetrating crisis and electoral violence were sanctioned and made to face the full wrath of the law to serve as deterrent to others.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the programme was organised in partnership with Shehu Musa Yar’adua Foundation and supported by MacArthur Foundation.
