2019 polls: Seven years jail term awaits vote buyers, sellers, says ICPC

The Commissioner in-charge of Education, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Muhammad Ashiru, has warned that anyone caught buying or selling his or her voters’ card, is liable to seven years jail term. He made the call on Monday in Kano during an awareness campaign programme organised by Dispute Resolution and Development Initiative in collaboration with the commission and Youth Alliance Foundation on vote buying. According to him, vote buying is corruption, bribery and gratification punishable under the ICPC Act with minimum of five years jail term and seven years maximum to both the buyer and seller. Ashiru, who decried the new trend of vote buying which has become so pronounced, revealed that the commission has decided to use the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria to train key INEC officials on how to conduct credible elections devoid of any form of corrupt practices. He said section 6A of the ICPC Act has empowered the Commission to persecute electoral offenders based on other laws that fight bribery, gratification and other forms of corruption, adding that the act of vote buying possess great danger to the democracy of the country and must be fought in earnest. The Executive Director, Dispute Resolution and Development Initiative, Dr. Mustapha Muhammad, attributed artificial poverty created among the people by some politicians as the main reason why people sell out their votes not minding the consequences. Muhammad said as a result of acute poverty, people fail to think rationally as they are left with no option but scamper for daily food as a result, anyone offering them peanuts to rob them of their mandates would be considered a saviour. Furthermore, Muhammad described vote buying as a new dynamic of corruption which is fast eating into the fabric of our democracy, stressing that all hands must be on deck to fight the act which is capable of destroying the whole democratic system of the country. He called on the general public to resist any politician offering them money in any form for their votes and go for those with credible antecedents in order to continue to enjoy the dividends of democracy. By Yakubu Salisu, Kano