As PDP Legalizes Vote Buying!

Puts A Benchmark On Bribes To Be Paid To Delegates

By Onwuasoanya Fcc Jones

The Imo State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party has come under attack from a cross section of Nigerians over what could be described as “an explicit approval for electoral fraud and financial corruption”.

This is as the major opposition Party placed a benchmark on bribes to be paid to delegates by aspirants under the Party’s platform.

In a memo signed by the Party’s secretary, Mr. Ray Emeana, House of Assembly aspirants were ordered to pay 30,000 Naira to each of the delegates, while House of Representatives and Senatorial aspirants were ordered to pay 50,000 and 80,000 Naira respectively to each of the delegates, “to enable the delegates transport themselves to venues of Primaries”.

A simple analysis of these figures show that aspirants would be doling out millions of Naira to delegates during the primaries. For instance, in an LGA, where we have ten House of Assembly aspirants, each delegate to the House of Assembly will be going home with at least 300,000 Naira, while each aspirant for House of Assembly election is expected to spend nothing less than Three Million Naira on buying delegates alone, that is in the very rare situation where there are just 100 delegates participating in the Primaries.

Ironically, the Party Scribe said the directive was meant to; “minimize cost of Party primaries and conserve funds for general elections”. And this has got some people wondering what could really be the Party’s definition of “Minimizing cost”, if an aspirant for the Party’s Senatorial ticket might be spending up to 50 Million Naira, “officially “, on just buying delegates. And if an aspirant is to spend such amount of money on just procuring delegates, yet, the Party Scribe still expects that money would be conserved for general election, it could therefore mean that the Party is preparing to unleash heavy financial artillery on Imo people during the general election.

While this Reporter can confirm that there is at least, one good candidate that shall be flying the PDP’s flag in the general elections in Imo State, this memo from the major opposition Party’s Scribe goes a long way to show that the PDP might not really be the “redeemer” we are hoping for, as they apparently have corruption and impunity entrenched in their system.

A more detailed analysis of this memo shall follow, if time permits.

NIGERIA SHALL PREVAIL!