Africa-Press – Nigeria. Former Executive Director of the Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, Professor Jibrin Ibrahim, has said electoral offences such as vote buying have become a major threat to democracy and the integrity of the electoral process.
Ibrahim stated this on Friday in an interview on Arise Television monitored.
He called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to enforce strict consequences for electoral crimes to ensure credible elections in Nigeria.
According to him, impunity encourages repeated offences, adding that only punishment can deter electoral crimes.
He was speaking about the forthcoming governorship election taking place in Anambra state.
INEC had fixed November 8 for the governorship poll in the state.
“If there are consequences for criminal acts, criminals stop their behaviour because they don’t want the punishment of going to jail. If, however, there are no consequences, they continue.
“One of the major issues of concern we have expressed, the problem of vote buying and selling, which has become a huge problem in Nigeria.
“And I think the statements by people in authority on this regard is extremely disturbing, because what commercialization of the vote does is that it makes nonsense of the principles of election,” he said.
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