The Edo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Council has said that the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state is buying votes with an emergency empowerment scheme aimed at obtaining Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) from voters, ahead of the Saturday, September 19 governorship election in the state.
Chairman of the Media and Publicity sub-committee of the campaign council, Chris Osa Nehikhare, in a statement, said the scheme was contrived and packaged to be a pet project of the wife of the candidate of the APC, Prof. Idia Ize-Iyamu implemented through the National Directorate of Employment (NDE).
According to him, “We are pressed to alert the public and all lovers of democracy that the APC in Edo State is buying votes with a contrived empowerment scheme which is being disbursed through the NDE under the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo.
“From the feelers we got from the disbursement ground on Commercial Avenue, GRA, Benin City, PVCs were purchased with N10,000. This, we believe, is barefaced vote-buying and must be condemned.”
He noted that the APC has resorted to the tactic after exhausting other options upon realising that they were marketing a failed product and would be humiliated by Edo voters at the poll.
“We are aware that the voters are being influenced and their PVCs profiled and their data taken. The voters are told to remain at home, while the details of the PVCs are being collected to advance sinister motives. We are alerting the world to this barefaced vote-buying and want to put it on record that the APC is subverting the democratic process.”
