The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Osun State, Mutiu Agboke, has called on the leadership of political parties in the state to use massive education to tackle the menace of vote-buying.
Agboke, who told the party leaders that they were the ones perpetrating vote-buying, spoke on the sidelines of an annual political stakeholders’ workshop organised by the leadership of the Inter-Party Advisory Council, Osun State chapter on the theme: ‘Our democracy the way forward, held in Osogbo on Tuesday.
He also urged party leaders to avoid using force to get votes, noting that violence still remains one of the challenges confronting free and fair polls in the country.
“I am very glad that they are the ones calling us to talk about vote-buying and talk about the tendency to be violent during the election. I also use this opportunity to say that the issue of vote-buying is a tendency that came into the electioneering process not from nowhere, but the stakeholders are the ones doing it. They agreed with me that they were the ones perpetrating it.
“One of the steps we need to take to stem it out is for us to start massive education which they are starting with this workshop.
“Again on violence, it is one of the cankerworms that is bedevilling the success of election in Nigeria, stakeholders are the ones perpetrating it and we need to talk to them to be able to understand how to comport themselves and ensure that people are better encouraged to vote than been compelled to vote. If you unleash terror and violence you are forcing people to vote in a direction,” Agboke said.
Earlier, Osun IPAC chairman, Victor Akande, said the two issues of violence and vote-buying discussed at the workshop were selected to advance the course of democracy in the country.
Akande, who said the party leaders had been equipped with relevant knowledge that would benefit public governance, implored them to conduct themselves in peaceful manner and avoid issues that can cause chaos during the forthcoming local Government elections in the state.
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