By Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna
Pre- election votes buying and selling by people mostly women dominated discussions at the monthly forum with Media on Peace Journalism on Community Initiatives to Promote Peace (CIPP) programme held in Kaduna on Saturday.
Participants at the programme titled: Interfaith Mediation Centre (IMC) monthly forum with media on peace journalism and political parties representatives” expressed dismay that votes buying and selling is currently thriving in the state ahead of 2023 general election in the State.
In the communiqué issued, participants collectively agreed to carry an aggressive media campaign against the trends after an exhaustive deliberation on its foreseeable demerits to the success of the 2033 general elections with regard to riggings.
Participants also revealed that Permanent Voters Card (PVC) and its contents are being sold by people and bought en-mass by politicians, adding that in some cases the victims who are mostly women also exchanged their PVC for food items and material wealth, including cell phones.
Although there was heated argument on whether or not, the possibility of using details of the sold PVC to rigs election by politicians without the consent of the owner among other things, the debate was however inconclusive due to lack of expert ideas.
The communique signed by
Rev. Michael Ikpa of IMC, John Eric of Kaduna Youth Peace Network and two others, participants however promised to extend the debate to INEC on advocacy for clarity on the matter, to clear the doubt.
While they called on Media practitioners to be objective in their reportage and to be an agenda setters in promoting peaceful coexistence in Kaduna State and the country at large, participants also noted that the initiative is part of the CIPP Program with support from IMC.
They called on the citizens of the State to shun ethnic and religious inclination that would polarize and instigate hatred and disunity among the citizenry.
It also urged National Electoral Commission (INEC) to stopped incidents of inconclusive elections and ensure the transmission of election results electronically in accordance with the 2022 amended electoral Act.
“Religious leaders should not use their sermons and congregation to preach disunity during, before and after the elections, so as not to cause division among fellow citizens in the State and Nigeria as a whole.
“Media practitioners in the country should sensitize and educates Nigerians not to see the 2023 general elections as a do or die affairs.
“Media owners in Kaduna State and the country should support and equip their reporters with modern equipments so as to enable them discharge their duty effectively during the coverage of the general elections”, it stated.
They observed that there is reduction of banditry, kidnapping and terrorism in the State and attributed this success to the ongoing continues efforts by the State relevant security operatives and the Nigerian Military, media and bodies, urging them to sustain the tempo.
They called on eligible voters in Kaduna and in the country to desist from selling their voters cards to politicians because of hunger and poverty.
Critical stakeholders in the State and the nation should continue to sensitize citizens, particularly youth against involvement in political thuggery before, during and after the general elections.
They decried the past experience of votes buying at the polling units and called on the relevant agencies to re-enforce their constitutional power to arrest any culprit politician that engaged in vote buying to serve as deterrent to others.
Findings also revealed that the plan is also decentralized other electorates from voting opposition candidates during elections against the choice oones.
