Saturday’s governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Bayelsa have one thing in common. Nigerians shamelessly selling their votes.
And one incident that touched the mind of Labour Party candidate in Bayelsa State Udengs Eradiri, was a one woman in his constituency who sold her vote.
“I had thought my message against money politics would have tracking with the people but I was wrong. I was deeply disappointed, I was wrong. said Eradiri.
“My greatest disappointment was with a woman from this community to whom I offered a scholarship to her son, she sold her vote for N14,000 and I was disappointed.
“We have a long way to go with this country and money politics. I thought I had found a solution but I was wrong; I did not come into this race to buy votes,” Mr Eradiri said.
He said that votes freely traded freely to the highest bidder from between N12,000 and N40,000 per vote, adding that he does not have the financial muscle to match the dominant parties.
The convener of the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, Yunusa Ya’u, noted that security personnel deployed for the elections were relatively civil in their conduct within and outside polling units, but turned a blind eye to vote buying.
“However, some security personnel were observed standing by while vote buying was going on,” he said.
According to him, there was widespread vote buying across the states, ranging from N1,000 to N30,000.
