Anambra 2021: PDP, APC ‘clash’ over vote buying

Ahead of the November 6 governorship polls in Anambra, the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday ‘clashed’ over vote buying during a round table discussion.

The roundtable was organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) in Abuja.

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Speaking at the event on vote buying, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan said, “As an opposition party, we don’t involve in vote buying, it is the those in government who have the resources that are responsible for heightened political thuggery in elections.”

Ologbondiyan said President Muhammadu Buhari had not helped Nigeria’s electoral process to grow, adding the APC was bent on manipulating the electoral processes in the country.

He argued that the ruling party has been using the Police to rig elections, citing examples in the last Kogi State governorship election among others.

But a representative of the APC at the event, Dada Olusegun said, “Mr Kola is acting as if PDP is an angel that didn’t use the police to win elections when they were in power.”

He said the country was already bad under the PDP before the APC took over in 2015, adding that there was insecurity in the land and other forms of bad governance in the country.

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), represented at the occasion by the Commissioner of Police (CP) Federal Operations, Force Headquarters, Ebong Eyibio, assured Nigerians of adequate security before, during, and after the Anambra State governorship election.

“I can assure you that we are well-prepared; we have adequate manpower; we have enough logistics; we will mobilise adequately. We are going to move in men well-detailed,” he said.

The Director-General of NILDS, and former Minister of National Planning, Prof Abubakar Sulaiman, in a keynote address, said the round table discussion was necessary in view of the various threats, insecurity and other issues surrounding the Anambra State governorship election.