APC chief attributes vote-buying to poverty, ignorance

Kodilichukwu Okelekwe, chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Anambra State, has said poverty and ignorance are reasons behind vote buying during elections.

Okelekwe, a senatorial candidate of the APC for the Anambra Central zone, revealed this during a stakeholders’ meeting of the party.

The senatorial candidate stated that it was a pity that people do not care about what they will go through in four or more years after collecting money to cast their votes.

According to him, vote-buying is now an issue in the election process, though it is a passing phase. He added that before then, it used to be ballot box snatching, but innovation in the election process had phased that out.

He noted: “Today, it is vote buying, and we know that too will pass away someday. Vote buying is made worse by poverty and ignorance. Someone will not consider the good education, good healthcare and many other dividends that come from good governance, but will rather insist on collecting money to vote.”

Okelekwe decried that vote buying was one of the reasons APC with its over 450,000 members in Anambra State could not win the state.

He said: “I have analysed the membership of our party in the state and found that we have over 450,000 members, yet people have won the governorship of this state with less than 200,000 votes. So why can we not poll our votes together and make a governor?”

Earlier in his speech, a professor of Political Science at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Prof. Charles Okoye delivered a lecture on party loyalty among members of political parties.

Okoye also corroborated the claims of Okelekwe, stating, “Poverty is the reason vote buying is thriving in Nigeria today. There is no election in Nigeria where you will not see canvassers soliciting for votes and giving money.

“That is where we need the media to sensitise the people of the dangers of selling their vote. For every vote you sell, you are enthroning bad leadership and incompetent people.”