Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has called on Anti-graft agencies to target the high-profile sponsors of vote trading during the 2023 general elections for arrest and prosecution.
The Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani stated this at a training organized in partnership with COMPART foundation for journalists on ‘prioritizing anti-corruption and accountability issues during the upcoming 2023 elections in Nigeria’ held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state capital.
Rafsanjani recalled that there were visible vote trading and arrests made by security agents during the just concluded elections in Osun State saying that people are eager to see the prosecution and conviction of not only those arrested at the scene but politicians that sent them to perpetuate the act.
He added that with the 2022 primaries and the gubernatorial elections in Nigeria exposing the reality of vote trading as well as the current issues confronting the country such as security challenges and corruption in electoral processes, the need to accord priority to anti-corruption and accountability during the upcoming elections becomes imperative.
According to him, “If you look at the just concluded Osun State elections, you will notice the rampant vote trading. We noticed anti-graft agencies making arrests and we commend them. However, we need to see prosecutions and convictions of those offenders as well as the politicians sending these individuals on these errands. The funds used in buying votes are moved through our financial institutions and the anti-graft agencies need to target the “big Fishes” also.”
Rafsanjani said the project was aimed at training journalists on the need to advocate for transparency in the political process as well as the enforcement of laws guiding political party financing and the demerits of vote trading.
He, therefore called for a free press that would instill some level of sanity in the Nigerian political elites whose actions he claimed had continued to ‘tarnish the good image of the country as a democratic space which operates within the purview of maximum respect for the rule of law.’
Also speaking the Executive Director of ComPart Foundation, Saviour Akpan said the media is indispensable in a democratic space to bring certain ills of politicians to the fore.
He noted that the 2023 elections would be a unique one, saying that for the first time, “we are going to have a third force that will drive the process between the two major contending political parties.
Akpan called for a paradigm shift in the way elections were handled in the country in the past saying that if not, we will have the same result.
In the fight against corruption, Akpan said, “we are not going to witch hunt anybody but we are going to ask questions because when you go down the street of Akwa Ibom you see poverty walking down the street, afraid of competition
This is going to be a unique election, it is one election for the first time we are going to have a third force that is going to drive the process between the two contending major political parties, there is a paradigm shift and we need to change the standard
If we do what we always do in 1999, 2003, 2015, 2019, etc in 2023, we are still going to have the same result therefore there is a need for a paradigm shift and to be able to do this, the citizens must be educated.”
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