Ahead of the forthcoming general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it would take precautionary measures to check vote buying.
Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Sam Olumekun, stated this Tuesday, at an interactive forum for religious leaders in the state at the commission’s office in Yaba.
Olumekun said the rising trend of vote buying at polling units in recent elections across Nigeria was a violation of the commission’s law.
Recent elections in Nigeria have been characterised by financial inducement of voters, which often takes place at the poling centres. The trend has become wide spread, undermining the credibility of the elections.
Speaking further, the Lagos State INEC boss, disclosed that the commission had finalised arrangements with relevant agencies to enforce relevant laws against the act in the forthcoming general elections.
“The commission has responded by re-examining the configuration of the polling units on election day in order to make it difficult for the voters to be expose the marked ballot paper between the voting cubicles .
“We are working with similar security agencies for the enforcement of the law against vote buying in particular and violation of campaign finance. Any body found to be involved would be prosecuted,” Olumekun said.
He lamented the inability of residents of the state to pick up their Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) in spite of increased sensitisation by the commission in recent months, stressing that the unclaimed PVC in the state was still 1.4 million.
Olumekun further asked for synergy between the commission and religious leaders, urging them to help sensitive their followers on the need to maintain peace.
He expressed the readiness of the commission to conduct a free and fair election in Lagos State.
Speaking earlier, the chairman of the Christian Association Nigeria (CAN) in the state, Alexander Bamigbola, urged the commission to strive to resolve several bottlenecks which had undermined the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) in the state before the general elections, while expressing readiness of the religious leaders in the state towards a peaceful elections.
“We are ready to work with the commission towards conducting a peaceful election in the coming weeks and we would take the message home to our followers, ” Bamigbola said.
