The governorship candidate said it is not acceptable for Nigerians to only talk about peace and order during elections and not before and after elections.
The African Action Congress (AAC) candidate in the forthcoming Ondo Governorship election, Kunle Ajayi, has blamed the frequent cases of vote-buying during elections in Nigeria on poverty.
Ajayi said this during his speech at the Ondo State Election Peace and Security Summit 2024 held ahead of the November 16 poll.
The governorship candidate said it is not acceptable for Nigerians to only talk about peace and order during elections and not before and after elections.
He said: “Why do we only talk about peace during the elections and we don’t talk about peace before and after the elections? And that is why I want to tell the organisers of this programme, my CP and other security agencies that are here that in a state where as of August 12, 2024, over 25,000 children were out of school in Ondo State, peace is an illusion.
“A state where the state governor used N725 million to do a fence. That peace is an illusion.”
He added: “A state where during the elections, most of the people are poor. My professor from Great Ife was talking about people buying votes and people selling votes, it is serious hunger that is making Nigerians sell their votes because the current ruling party has removed subsidy and palliative is like throwing water into the ocean.
“If we really need peace in Ondo State, we need to talk about security issues, we need to talk about economic issues. You can’t keep people poor and be talking of peace. People are uneducated and you are talking of peace.”
In preparation for the poll, the Independent National Electoral Commission had said the collection of the Permanent Voter Cards by registered voters for the state governorship election will commence on Thursday, October 17.
The electoral body stated that owners of 295,603 PVCs yet to be collected in the state will have the opportunity to retrieve their cards and be eligible to vote, including the 89,777 new PVCs which have just been printed and delivered to the state ahead of the election.
This was disclosed by the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumeku,n in a statement issued on Monday.
The statement noted that a total of 89,777 new PVCs were printed and delivered to the INEC state office in Akure.
The new PVCs include 58,708 cards for new voters and 31,069 cards for individuals who applied for transfers, updates, or replacements of lost and damaged PVCs.