The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to \u201curgently direct the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN, and appropriate anti-corruption agencies to identify and arrest politicians who are allegedly buying permanent voter cards (PVCs) from poor Nigerians, and promptly bring them to justice.\u201d
\nSERAP is also urging him to \u201censure that the politicians and their sponsors who are suspected to be involved in these grave electoral and human rights crimes are named and shamed, regardless of their political affiliations.\u201d
\nThe Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recently alleged that some politicians are buying PVCs from poor Nigerians across the country.
\nThe Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has corroborated the allegations, reportedly stating that some politicians are buying PVCs with N2,000 in the North.
\nIn the letter dated December 17, 2022 and signed by SERAP Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said: \u201cBuying 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.\u201d
\nSERAP said, \u201cThe allegations that politicians and their sponsors are buying PVCs from poor Nigerians are grave violations of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended], the Electoral Act, and the country\u2019s international anti-corruption and human rights obligations.\u201d
\nAccording to SERAP, \u201cThe 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.\u201d
\nThe letter, read in part: \u201cWe would be grateful if the recommended measures are taken within seven days of the receipt and\/or publication of this letter. If we have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall consider appropriate legal actions to compel your government to comply with our request in the public interest.
\n\u201cNo 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.
\n\u201cThe buying of PVCs from poor Nigerians and the resulting deprivation of the right to participation would completely compromise the legitimacy of representative government.
\n\u201cInvestigating, 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\u2019s right to vote, and public trust and confidence in the electoral process.
\n\u201cThe Nigerian Constitution provides in Section 14(1)(c) that, \u2018the participation by the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.\u2019 Sections 121 and 127 of the Electoral Act prohibit electoral bribery and undue influence before, during and after any election.
\n\u201cSimilarly, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights, and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance guarantee the right to political participation, including the right to vote.
\n\u201cThese human rights treaties also require states parties including Nigeria to promote the establishment of the necessary conditions to foster citizen participation.
\n\u201cBuying of PVCs is a variation of vote buying and undue influence. It would undermine the ability of INEC to effectively discharge its responsibilities under Section 153 of the Nigerian Constitution and paragraph 15(a) of the third schedule of the Constitution, and the Electoral Act 2022.
\n\u201cIt would lead to disparate and discriminatory treatment of poor Nigerians, encourage poor governance, and weaken citizens\u2019 capacity to hold their \u2018elected officials\u2019 accountable for their actions.
\n\u201cWhen politicians and their sponsors decide to buy the support of the people rather than contest fairly for their votes, there are possibilities that such politicians will show a disregard for democratic rules and a disposition to adopt illegal means becomes inevitable.
\n\u201cActing swiftly to address the brazen impunity and allegations of politicians purchasing PVCs from poor Nigerians would also send a strong message to politicians that your government would not tolerate any infringement of the electoral process ahead of the 2023 general election.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to \u201curgently direct the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN, and appropriate anti-corruption agencies to identify and arrest politicians who are allegedly buying permanent voter cards (PVCs) from poor Nigerians, and promptly bring them to justice.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":304805,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[688],"class_list":["post-310404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-front-pix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=310404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310417,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310404\/revisions\/310417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/304805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=310404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=310404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=310404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}