The national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdulahi Adamu, says the ruling party does not buy votes, accusing the Nigerian media of compromising the country’s democratic process by publishing vote-buying stories.

“As a patriotic Nigerian that is privileged to lead the ruling party in this country today, I want to only appeal to the media. Please, don’t partake in portraying negative attitudes in our processes,” stated the APC chair. “If you do so, you are compromising. I’m sorry to say so. You’re compromising the integrity of our process as a country.”

According to him, the media has been hammering on vote-buying in general elections, including the Ekiti governorship poll.

“I have noticed that over the last maybe four or five general elections in this country, this issue of vote-buying has taken a centre stage. I’m sure his Excellency, the governor-elect, responded in very good faith,” Mr Abdullahi claimed.

He added, “Somebody who is losing the election flew a kite. ‘Oh no, they are buying votes and all the kind of money they have we don’t have, that’s why I’m losing,’ and you are helping to market that opinion.”

APC’s Biodun Oyebanji polled 187,057 votes to win the governorship election in Ekiti.

Mr Abdullahi, who addressed State House correspondents after he officially presented the governor-elect (Mr Oyebanji) to President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday in Abuja, said the allegation of vote-buying was raised by elements who lost the election.

He added, “I would have preferred if the person who asked that question saying, ‘Look, in America, this is what they do in a democracy in respect to the subject matter. In the United Kingdom or France this is what they do. This is what you are doing differently’. And please let us not be too much in the space of speculation.”

Mr Abdullahi also spoke about the running mate to APC presidential candidate Bola Tinubu. According to him, the ruling party has not taken any unconstitutional action.

“We are not in the speculative world. We are governed by the laws of the land. There’s nothing our presidential candidate has done with regards to returning his forms that is not within the confines of the law of the land,” he explained.

He told the journalists that there would be no case of the placeholder for Mr Tinubu’s running mate going rogue.

“Everything we’ve done so far we have done very carefully with legal consultation and we are cocksure, we’re not going to have the kind of speculation that you are professing at this point in time,” added the APC chairman. “We’re very comfortable with what we have done.”

(NAN)