Mr Idris Miliki, the Executive Director, Conscience for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution (CHRCR), has called on voters to guard against monetary inducement and vote-buying/selling during the forthcoming Kogi governorship election.
Miliki 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 urged them not to sell their votes saying, “Don’t allow anybody to influence your votes through monetary inducement. Do the Risks Assessment of monies presented to you for the votes.”
He stressed that sale of votes amounted to the sale of mandate, conscience and the future of children yet unborn and development of the country.
The executive director wondered why anyone who wanted to serve would have to bribe the people to allow him to serve them, saying, “If I want to serve you, why do I have to give you money to allow me to 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 the credibility of such exercise would be questioned.
Miliki said the conduct of party primaries and other sundry electoral and political activities in the night made them vulnerable and smacked of lack of transparency and accountability.
He urged media practitioners to guard against engaging in speculative and sensational reporting as well as the 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 perpetuating crisis and electoral violence were sanctioned and made to face the full wrath of the law to serve as a deterrent to others.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the programme was organised in partnership with Shehu Musa Yar’adua Foundation and supported by MacArthur Foundation.