A civil society organisation, Yiaga Africa, has called on the Federal Government to criminalise electoral fraud to sanitise the county’s electoral process.

Executive Director of the CSO, Samson Itodo, made the call during an interview on Sunday in Abuja.

Mr Itodo said that practices such as vote buying, violence, thuggery and manipulation of results had constituted hindrances to electing credible political representations in Nigeria.

He said, “What we are now seeing is people with purchasing power buying their ways through during elections and they resort to exchanging competence with mediocrity. The politicians now know the language of the people because they have weaponised poverty.’’

According to him, what the country needs now are stringent laws that will criminalise vote buying, thuggery and other forms of fraud during elections.

Mr Itodo said that the provisions in the Electoral Act were only about bribery and conspiracy which were not enough to tackle the menace.

“I think we need to clearly outline and define vote buying and also prosecute the sponsors and their agents who are buying and selling votes. We also need to constantly re-orientate people to tell them the reason why the politicians are buying votes,” he said.

The executive director said if these were able to be achieved and people used their votes wisely, it would ensure credibility in the country’s electoral process.

According to him, until the state begins to prosecute and jail people instigating and perpetrating violence, nothing will change.

He stated, “The majority of the political class want power at all costs and are willing to kill, just to secure power. One of the sins they said Yiaga Africa committed was exposing these frauds. For me, if that is a sin, I shall commit it many times over. That way people can hold them to account. But if you continue to allow our electoral process to be captured by political elements, we will get to a point where only one per cent of people will turn out to vote.’’

Stressing the need for Nigerians to turn out en masse to vote during elections, Mr Itodo said that the current level of turnout cannot change anything.

He added, “If Nigerians show up in their large numbers, I bet you, they will determine the outcome of such elections. It is easier to rig an election when people don’t show up. If people show up and insist that the right thing be done, then it will be difficult for those people to manipulate the process,”

(NAN)