Civil society organisations, Project Victory Call Initiative and Rotary Club, Benin chapter, has called for an end to vote-buying ahead of the 2023 elections.
The groups made the call during a courtesy visit to the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Edo State council, on Saturday.
Speaking at the event, the spokesperson for PVC, Paula Bell-Gam, said the visit was to intimate members of the union concerning their resolve to sensitise and educate the public, particularly the electorate, on the ills of vote-buying and selling.
This was disclosed in a statement made available to The PUNCH on Saturday.
In her speech, Bell-Gam said that the effects of the menace of vote buying and selling on the larger society has become unacceptable, stressing that the practice must stop.
She said, “What happened in the last primaries of political parties by way of financial inducement by politicians was a national embarrassment and such should stop”.
Continuing, She said, “It is high time we stop the mindset of vote buying and selling and as such we are embarking on a peaceful mach to drive home our point.”
In her remark, the President of Rotary Club Of Benin, GRA, District 914 of Rotary International, Nkechi Oyebuchi, pointed out that come the 3rd of October, 2022, Rotary Club will carry out a nation-wide peace walk in commemoration of Nigeria Independence anniversary and to use the occasion to sensitise the electorate of the evil of selling of vote.
Speaking at the event, she said, “There is going to be a peace walk, commemorative of the nation’s Independence anniversary and we are using the opportunity to sensitise the voters of the dangers of selling their vote for a paltry amount of money for an immediate benefit and forgetting the long term negative effects of selling one’s conscience for a paltry amount of money that takes nobody nowhere.”
In his reaction, the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Edo State council, Comrade Festus Alenkhe, thanked the visiting team for their efforts to deepen the country’s democratic growth through advocacy promising that the Edo State council would do everything within its power to partner with the organizations to have credible polls in the country.
