“Vote buying, coup against democracy”

The Nigerian Human Rights Community (NHRC) has raised alarm over prevalence of vote buying in recent elections held in the country, describing the trend as a coup on democracy.

It said if nothing is done to check the trend, it could completely erode the credibility of the elections.

NHRC at a press conference in Lagos also reflected on the recent governorship election in Osun state, calling on the police to prosecute the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ademola Adeleke, for allegedly involving in vote buying.

Director of Programmes, NHRC, Mr. Taiwo Adeleye noted that a video clip recorded by NHRC has been sent to the police which displayed where vote buying occurred during the election.

He however lamented that nothing has been done to prosecute the alleged vote buyers. This, according to him, is the highest form of corruption.

“Corruption is rewriting our history. With the idea of bribing voters, common criminals will be elected. It is our very strong opinion that democracy remains the best form of addressing the iniquities unleashed on Nigerians by her own leaders. We call on Nigerians to act now.

“We condemn in very strong terms the cold attitude of President Muhammadu Buhari towards this criminal conduct of politicians. We regret to observe that INEC officials saw these criminal conducts but decided to look the other way,” Adeleye said.

He also called for the resignation of Adeleke as a Senator of Federal Republic because of the video clips.

He added, “We in fact call for his resignation from the Senate. We call on the police to prosecute him for electoral manipulation and bribery of voters. He provided the hard evidence in his campaign slogan where he declared that he would bribe the voters with Naira and dollars.

“The most astonishing is the display of the video clips. The NHRC has sent the clip to the authorities in the past one month. Nothing has been done. We had and still demand for the prosecution of Senator Adeleke for openly canvassing for support with the promise that he would pay the voters huge sums of money on the Election Day.”