Bayelsa, Imo, Kogi polls: Vote buying, intimidation disturbing — Peace c’ttee

The National Peace Committee (NPC) has said the persistence of the culture of vote-buying, intimidation, voter apathy, among others during last Saturday’s off-cycle governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states is disturbing.

The chairman of the committee, former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd), said this on Thursday in a statement he personally signed, in which he also urged aggrieved parties to seek redress in the courts and not to lose hope in the judiciary.

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“We are not unaware of the glitches recorded during the elections. Sadly, we have noted that some of the old ways remain and ordinary people continue to collude with corrupt members of society to stall the processes of our elections.

“The persistence of the culture of vote-buying, intimidation, voter apathy, among others is disturbing. A democratic culture will only grow if we participate in cleaning up the process of our elections because in the end, we are the victims. The corruption of the process will lead to the emergence of corrupt leaders if we collude with merchants of corruption,” Abdulsalami said.

He, however, commended the people of Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states, “For defying obstacles and threats by performing their civic duties. We encourage our people to remain resilient and to use our experiences to correct the mistakes in the process of our elections.”