2019: Oby Ezekwesili blows hot over vote buying, warns politicians

Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, has disclosed that a new coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) will contend with any politician in Nigeria who is thinking of buying votes during the 2019 general elections.

She, however, noted that the nation’s laws should be enforced so that when politicians are caught buying votes, they would face the consequence.

Ezekwesili, who spoke at a press conference in Abuja on Monday, said: “What we have called you for is about the core issue of leadership recruitment process. It is broken in our political process and we as citizens are saying that we will mobilize to fix it.

“The existing law has something about vote buying being a felony, so it is a felony and our coalition is going to work on that and ensure that in 2019 anyone who is thinking that they are going to buy vote and then be elected into office to enjoy a political mandate that lack legitimacy would know that they have citizens to contend with.

“So it is important that some of those laws that are not being enforced shouldn’t be the case already that those who were caught buying vote just like in the Ekiti election should already be facing the consequences.

“So why do you think that sometimes these things don’t get done because there is no group of citizens enforcing it and putting pressure for it to be done.”

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