By Kate Obande-Okewu
Abuja – The Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has called on stakeholders, political parties and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to intensify advocacy on the dangers of vote buying and selling.
Mr Peter Ameh, National Chairman, IPAC said this on Thursday in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
Ameh described vote buying and selling as dangerous enemies of democracy which must be discouraged.
He said stakeholders should educate eligible voters on what to look out for before voting candidates, and not making decisions based on who pays for their votes.
He identified political parties as the principal stakeholders in an electoral process and called on them to champion the cause.
“Every party has members from ward level to national level so they should start talking and educating voters at every level not to sell their votes.
“The voters should know that their votes carry quality education, electricity, pipe-borne water among others.
“Therefore, selling it would mean selling the future of generations yet-unborn.
“As it is, people don’t believe government is there to service only their interest, they feel government serves the interest of those elected and this mindset must be changed.
“From 1999 till date, there are going to be first-time voters in the forthcoming election and then need to be educated,” he said.
He said that many eligible voters are Information Technology compliant; saying the web and social media should be used to engage them on the dangers of vote selling and buying.
He told NAN that IPAC had already started moblising people at the state level, talking to them not to sell their votes.