Copyright leadership
The African Action Congress (AAC) candidate, Chioma Ifemeludike, yesterday accused political parties of widespread vote-buying in yesterday’s Anambra election. In a tweet, she condemned vote-buying as a destructive practice that criminalises both voters and politicians, calling for strict enforcement and arrests. “I just got a report from my polling unit searchlight that vote buying is heavily happening across polling units in the Anambra state Governorship elections. I call on security agencies and INEC to get these party agents to pay voters ₦5,000 for their conscience. This very act is destroying our society, and it is totally unacceptable! “Voters selling their votes for as little as ₦5,000, and whoever is buying should be sentenced to life imprisonment. This act criminalises both the electorate and politicians, it obstructs accountability in governance and demonises leaders in power. “This is criminal, totally absurd. If APGA claims to have all the popularity, why then are they buying votes? Criminalising and polluting the polity, wasting our resources rather than channelling them to environmental and human development. “This practice must be proscribed and eradicated for true and patriotic leaders to pave the way for the needed change we seek in our society. I call on @inecnigeria and the Nigerian police force to arrest any individual or group of people enforcing this abominable act,” she wrote. Ifemeludike previously criticised the state of governance in Anambra. Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, she said, “People’s lives haven’t mattered under Professor Soludo’s administration. Security is failing, and preventable deaths continue.” She condemned killings and kidnappings, highlighting the case of Emmanuel Chinecherem Igwe, who was murdered despite a ransom payment and promised to overhaul Anambra’s security system. “I’ll scrap the current vigilance group, Agwunechemba, and recruit local personnel under proper government supervision,” she stated.
