Civil Society Organisations have slammed Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, for his cash reward for every ward won by his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), in the forthcoming November 8 governorship election, describing it as a dangerous move.
Naijaonpoint reports that Soludo, while speaking on Saturday during the party’s campaign rally in Umunze, Orumba South Local Government Area, Soludo promised to give his party supporters ₦1 million.
He said, “When we were campaigning for the Senate, we knew we were going to win every ward in the South Senatorial Zone, but we still had some incentives. Any ward that APGA won received N1m, and we won all the wards in Orumba South.
“We promised each of these wards N1m and next week, we will redeem it. The ward that comes first will get N5m, the second N3m and the third N2m. That was the deal. For November 8, any ward that wins again will receive N1m, while the first three performing wards will get N5m, N2m and N1m respectively.”
The Executive Director of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership and rights activist, Debo Adeniran, in an interview with Punch, said Soludo’s action had institutionalised vote-buying and monetised the electoral process in the state.
Adeniran stated that the authorities and the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Joash Amupitan, should stop Soludo’s move.
He said, “This is reprehensible. The governor of a state should be a shining example of good behaviour. Vote-buying is an electoral crime for which the governor could be tried once he relinquishes his immunity. It is a way of instigating the people against the law.
“What he has done amounts to electoral indiscipline and a criminal act. The authorities should stop him. INEC, under Amupitan, should take exceptional notice of it and apply the appropriate section of the law to discipline the governor. His immunity doesn’t cover electoral offences.”
Similarly, a former National Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council, Alhaji Yabagi Sani, described the governor’s move as a dangerous precedent that could undermine democratic values.
He explained that the statement amounted to an open attempt to commercialise the electoral process, which could fuel electoral malpractice and weaken public confidence in governance.
Sani called on INEC, the police, and the EFCC to investigate the statement, noting that a formal letter should be sent to him to clarify his remarks.
He said, “It will have a lot of negative influence on politics because it means he has openly commercialised the election, and that is clear rigging. The money he’s talking about is the people’s money, which he wants to use to win the election because others do not have access to it. Even if they did, it’s not a good practice at all. That’s a bad idea for democracy.
“They preach against the use of money in elections, yet some of these people are commercialising the process to gain advantage. I think INEC, the police, and EFCC should also ask him to explain his statement. A letter should be sent to him to clarify why he made such a remark because it runs contrary to the laws of the land.”
Corroborating these views, the Media and Communication Officer of YIAGA Africa (an election monitoring group), Jennifer Dafwat, called for stiffer punishment for politicians caught engaging in vote-buying.
According to her, Soludo’s statement further highlighted a deep-rooted problem in Nigeria’s political culture, where incentives and material rewards are used to influence voters’ choices long before election day.
She said, “Vote-buying is not limited to the act of exchanging money on election day. It includes any form of incentive meant to sway people’s decisions in favour of a candidate. What Governor Soludo said clearly falls within that category.”
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