Nigerians want PDP senator jailed after confessing to buying votes in 2023

The vote-buying challenge remains a plague on election credibility in Nigeria as it creates an unfair and undue advantage for candidates with deep pockets to easily have their way in a contest.

The unfortunate phenomenon has continued to be a cause of concern for all the stakeholders, including the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

To stamp out the practice from the nation’s electoral culture, the government criminalised the act and operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are usually deployed on election day to arrest both the buyers and the sellers.

As seen in a viral video, Oyewumi, who is the Deputy Minority Senate Leader, narrated how he sent his aide to help him buy votes on the eve of the February 25, 2023 National Assembly election.

After exhausting the money given to him by the party, the senator said he gave his personal money to the aide to give to voters at the Onilu House polling unit but the offer was rejected by strong supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Speaking in Yoruba, the senator said, “I tried all the tricks I knew to win at the Onilu House (Ile Onilu) polling unit but these people didn’t allow me.

“After exhausting money for the election, I gave my personal money to Ten-Ten to give to people at night to buy votes on the eve of the election, Ten-Ten came back with my money, saying the people rejected it. I was surprised.

“That was why I reached out to these people because I cannot be a Senator and continue to fail there. I was the one who called Ayandosu from Abuja to join me in the PDP. I told him he has talent and that the party he was serving then (APC) would not allow him to grow.”

Reacting to the confession, the Osun APC leadership in a statement by its chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, said Oyewumi’s revelation has justified its long-held claim that the election in the state was not free and fair.

“The confessional statement of Senator Oyewumi was a confirmation of the fact that the last series of the elections in the state which secured victory for all the PDP candidates including Governor Ademola Adeleke, were brazenly rigged.

“The self-confession of Senator Oyewumi was an indication that he is a desperate politician who could go to any length to illegally corner opportunities regardless of what such portends to the right-thinking members of the society.

“In a civilised clime, Senator Oyewumi has no iota of reason to remain a minute longer in the Senate where he has been the Minority Leader based on his self-confession that he engaged in vote-buying during the election that secured a fraudulent victory for him.

“By now, Senator Oyewumi should be a guest of the statutory law enforcement agency constitutionally saddled with the responsibility of investigating such political crime involving a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Lawal said.

Meanwhile, Nigerians on social media have called on the EFCC to investigate the matter and bring the senator justice.

Below are some of the reactions:

• Even after the confession nothing is going to happen the youths who are suppose to act will fight each other to protect the rich / the politician that st0le from them. – @goodnewsericoisika
• All of them na same ! We never ready for Nigeria. Total overhauling is the only way. From top to bottom!!! – @rosywills
• The ending part, it’s about their personal growth and not the betterment of Nigeria. The buying of vote is old school, majority of them do it – @xcel_b_thyname
• EFCC where are you ? – @nagudiae
• Our problems are self inflicted… we are the architects of our misfortune. – @_tomiideeh
• One don come out to confess, plenty more go still happen. – @henry_aniegboka_
• If only Nigeria was a decent society. Even with this… let’s see if anything can happen. – @lovefromify
• He didn’t only admit it, he said it with his mouth. In a sane country he would have been in jail by now. – @strithustla