Senator Adams Oshiomhole, a former governor of Edo State, has called electoral fraud the “worst crime” in a democracy and warned that manipulating election results and purchasing votes weakens the will of the electorate.
In an interview with News Central’s Politics HQ on Monday, Oshiomhole discussed the postponements in Nigeria’s electoral reforms in the run-up to the general election in 2027.
“I won every one of the eighteen local government districts in Edo State during my 2012 reelection. “I didn’t give anyone money,” he declared.
He claims that at the time, he made it clear to voters that he would not engage in vote buying.
Instead, I told the voters that they could pick up the money from my opponent, who was reportedly in possession of it, without a receipt or a refund. Oshiomhole remarked, “But I have no money to give you, but I will give you my all in terms of development.”
According to the senator, a key component of democracy’s significance is election integrity.
“I believe it is about people realizing that the worst thing you can do is to cheat in elections because democracy is about having the inner sense that, out of the two hundred million people in your constituency, you have been selected by the state to use its resources creatively in order to provide the most benefit to the greatest number of people,” he said.
Oshiomhole pointed out that there are already explicit penalties against vote buying and result manipulation in the current electoral legislation.
There are consequences for vote buying. We’ve planned for it. A presiding officer faces consequences if they intentionally behave in a way that subverts the electorate’s will or tampers with or destroys the ballot sheet in a way that tilts the results in favor of the loser, he stated.
The penalty is more than just fines, he continued.
Oshiomhole added, “And the penalty is not only monetary but also a penalty for jail.”
He added that everyone who engages in electoral misconduct faces consequences.
There are sanctions for INEC officials. There are repercussions on the candidates’ side as well, he continued.
