Level of vote buying alarming — INEC Chairman, Yakubu

By Levinus Nwabughiogu, Abuja

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has said that the level of vote buying in the country has assumed an alarming dimension.

He also said that the commission’s sensitive materials and the staff were in grave danger due to insecurity, reiterating that the menace was still a big threat to the conduct of the 2023 general elections.

Yakubu raised the concerns while giving his goodwill message at an annual summit of political parties and stakeholders organised by National Institute of Strategic Studies, NIPPS, in Abuja on Wednesday, to brainstorm on how best to achieve successful polls in 2023.

The Chairman was represented at the event by a Director in the Commission, Mrs. Hauwa Habib.

He called on the political parties to properly educate their members on the dos and don’ts of the system.

Yakubu said: “It will be recalled that since 1999 when we returned to democratic system of government in Nigeria, electoral laws keep improving.

“The laws are put to test when the electoral process commences. Enforcement of these provisions sometimes becomes impossible because heads of political parties becomes recalcitrant and there are administrative and financial challenges or even lack of knowledge of what the political process entails.