VON DG: Buhari has ended era of vote-buying

Osita Okechukwu, director-general of the Voice of Nigeria, says President Muhammadu Buhari has ended vote-buying in elections.

He also said the president has ended the era of “writing election results in hotels”.

Okechukwu said this at a national dialogue on curbing vote-buying and selling, organised by the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Abuja on Tuesday.

Nigeria’s elections have usually been affected with incidents of vote-buying and selling by political parties and their candidates.

He added that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has greatly improved under the current administration and has conducted “more credible” elections than in past years.

“Days of writing election results in hotel sheets have been eliminated. And this is because of the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari,” he said.

“You can no longer carry the ballot box to your hotel. If you do that, or seize the result sheets, you are wasting your time.

“The last presidential and national assembly elections in Enugu, people were asking, where is the money? If you are selling your votes for N5,000, how long can it sustain you?”

Garba Abari, NOA director-general, said the dialogue is to access the causes of vote-buying and seek ways to eliminate it.

He also said the agency will continue to mobilise Nigerians and carry out orientation programmes against vote-buying across the 36 states.