By Emmanuel Acha
An Enugu-based group, Youth Alliance for Good Governance, says it has set up monitoring teams across the state to check vote buying during the forthcoming general elections.
The Founder of the group, Mr Kingsley Ochinawata, disclosed this on Tuesday in Enugu while addressing the newsmen on the preparations for the polls.
Ochinawata said that the monitoring teams were in the 260 electoral wards in the state, adding that inducement by politicians during polls must stop.
He said that youths in the state would no longer allow desperate politicians to mortgage their future through monetary inducement during elections.
The founder said that the group had also initiated sensitisation programmes to encourage young Nigerians to play active role during the polls, by exercising their franchise.
“Youths across the country stand a chance of deciding who wins in any election, but the level of apathy among voters in the state and South-East in general is worrisome.
“We call on Nigerians to participate in the forthcoming elections and vote according to their conscience.
“We are also warning desperate politicians who induce voters through monetary gifts that, it will no longer be business as usual as our monitoring team will be on ground during elections,” he said.
Ochinawata said that politicians found culpable would not only be blacklisted by youths in the state but reported to law enforcement agencies.
The State Coordinator of the group, Mr Osita Enengwu, said that time had come for youths in the state to take their destiny into their hands.
Enengwu said that it was sad that some politicians only remember their people during elections, adding that immediately after the polls, such elected politicians become inaccessible.
“The time has come for us to stand up for our rights and place our state on the path of sustainable development. Our youths must shun all forms of election violence,” he said.
The state coordinator said that the group was also mobilising against elected office holders who had nothing to show for the various offices they occupy.
He said that a good number politicians from the state, at different levels of government, had performed woefully, adding that such politicians they must be voted out.
Enengwu said that though the group was nonpartisan, it would collaborate with other organisations against any form of electoral malpractice during the polls.
“Politicians that have stayed one or more tenures, without any tangible thing to show as regards good governance and dividends of democracy must be voted out this time,” Enengwu said. (NAN)
