SERAP wants politicians buying PVCs prosecuted

SOCIO-ECONOMIC Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and anti-corruption agencies to arrest politicians buying Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) from poor Nigerians, and promptly bring them to justice.

SERAP also urged Buhari to ensure that the politicians and their sponsors involved in grave electoral crimes and human rights violations are named and shamed, regardless of their political affiliations.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recently alleged that some politicians were buying PVCs from poor Nigerians across the country.

The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) corroborated INEC, adding that some politicians in the North bought PVCs with as low as N2,000. In the letter signed by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP asserted: “Buying of PVCs from poor Nigerians is a threat to fair and representative elections, as it amounts to vote-buying, undue influence and improper electoral influence.

“The allegations that politicians and their sponsors are buying PVCs from poor Nigerians are grave violations of the Nigerian Constitution, the Electoral Act, and the country’s international anti-corruption and human rights obligations.”

According to SERAP, the right to vote is central to the enjoyment of other basic human rights, but the right will have little meaning if politicians and their sponsors continue to buy PVCs and get away with their crime against the Nigerian people.

The letter reads: “No body politic worthy of being called a democracy entrusts the selection of leaders to a process of auction or barter. Inducing poor Nigerians to sell their PVCs intrudes on their freedom to make up their own minds.

“Investigating, identifying, naming and shaming those suspected to be involved in these criminal acts of vote-buying and undue influence, and bringing them to justice would promote the people’s right to vote, public trust and confidence in the electoral process.”