Mallam Ango, a resident of Wamakko Local Government, Sokoto State, has alleged that political actors in his community promised all residents N2,000 if they voted for the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu.
In a conversation with SaharaReporters on Wednesday afternoon, Ango claimed that it was a usual practice in his community for people to demand money before voting in any of the general elections.
He claimed they were promised N2000 per head to vote for Tinubu, an increase from the N1000 they were promised to vote for Buhari during the 2019 general elections.
He said the increment could be due to the competition the APC now faced in the state from the Peoples Democratic Party.
Ango’s claim represents the stories of several vote buying exercises which characterised the Nigerian electioneering period.
Meanwhile, the Director General of the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organization (APCO), Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State had also alleged that the APC was amassing money to buy people’s votes ahead of next month’s elections.
Though his party, PDP, is also notorious for inducing voters with money during elections as seen in the last Ekiti and Osun states governorship elections, Tambuwal rubbed the allegations of vote-buying on the APC in January in the Binji local government area of Sokoto State while he was on the third leg of a statewide campaign on behalf of the PDP.
The state campaign train has so far touched base in seven out of the 23 local government areas of the state: Dange/Shuni, Illela, Kware, Silame, Wamakko, Binji and Tangaza.