A Civil Society Organisation (CSO), identified as Advocacy for Good Ethics and Accountability for Development, has urged politicians to shun vote buying and concentrate on issues that would attract votes from the electorate.

The Executive Director, Henry Thomas, made the call during a Sensitisation Programme titled “Vote in Peace“ with the theme; Curbing Vote Buying and Other Irregularities; a Panacea to a successful 2023 election held in Abuja on Wednesday.

Thomas also called on the electorate to vote based on competence of the candidates not the amount made available to them by politicians.

He said that it was wrong for politicians to prioritise vote-buying at the expense of quality representation.

The Executive Director stated that Nigeria was among the most peaceful countries in the world but the story changed over time, due to bad leadership, religious and ethnic sentiments.

He said; "Nigeria as a country has no business with poverty which has been the major reason for the insecurity in the country.

“Nigeria is a country that God has blessed with almost everything except good leadership.

“The political class have been very united in disuniting the citizens and the instruments for which they have successfully perpetrated this unholy act are religion, language and ethnicity,” he said.

“The future of this country is not in the hands of any political party, it is not in the hands of any individual but it is in the hands of the people of Nigeria,” he said.

He urged Nigerians to vote rightfully and should not sell their votes.

In a remark, the President of a Civil Society Group for Good Governance, Mr Ogakwu Dominic called for stringent measures to check the menace of vote trading during the 2023 general elections, reiterating the importance as one which will secure us and save our country from penultimate disaster.

Also speaking, Presidential candidate of African Action Congress (AAC), Mr Omoyele Sowore, expressed concerns over the destruction of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s facilities in some parts of the country.

Sowore urged politicians to desist from actions that could raise anxiety culminating in electoral violence during the campaigns in next year general elections.