The Guild of Public Affairs Analysts of Nigeria (GPAAN ), the nation's foremost organization for public affairs analysts and political commentators has raised alarm over the recurring ugly decimal of both vote-selling – by some gullible electorate and buying by the corrupt politicians – which have become endemic in our political clime.
The disturbing dimension to the electoral process marred the conduct of the recent by-elections across 12 affected states in the country.
It would be recalled that GPAAN, as led by Ayo Oyoze Baje, the National President, Lekan Sote (Vice President), Victor Anya (General Secretary) in addition to the Zonal Chapter Chairmen in Enugu, Port Harcourt, Ilorin and Abuja, FCT, has remained an advocate of sustained Voter Education for the electorate since October 2022 as part of the organization's matching mandate in the pursuit of good governance in Nigeria.
Sadly however, going by several media reports the nauseating menace of vote-buying was recorded in Oyo, Ogun, Kaduna, Kano states and led to protests that stalled the balloting in Enugu State. It was also one of the reasons for the arrests of some politicians and INEC officials apprehended by EFCC operatives in some states.
Worthy of note is that the by-elections came about due to the death and resignation of the former occupants which prompted the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) to declare their seats vacant.
According to INEC a total of 3,553,659 registered voters were considered eligible to participate in the by-elections, distributed across 32 local government areas, 356 wards and 6,987 polling units spread across the 12 states involved in the exercise.
With regards to the incident of alleged vote-buying, precisely in Ogun state two chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, were arrested with huge sums of cash allegedly for vote-buying during the voting exercise.
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