INEC Chief Yakubu Slams Vote-Buying in Party Primaries

Vote-buying during party primaries has been condemned by Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Professor Yakubu reportedly characterized the activity as demonic and threatening democracy.
This was said by him on Tuesday in Abuja at the Commission’s first Regular Consultative Meeting with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) for 2025.

CSOs were urged to keep an eye on party politics, especially party primary elections, by the INEC Chair.
Yakubu also complimented the CSOs for their insights on INEC’s election-related behavior and recommendations for ensuring the nation’s elections are transparent.

In his own words: “I want to encourage civil society organizations to give party primaries the same level of attention as you do to the INEC-conducted secondary elections. Ultimately, on election day, voters can only select the candidates that have been nominated by their respective political parties.

Throughout elections, you have continuously voiced concerns about vote-buying at polling places, according to your monitoring reports as authorized election observers.

“The Commission has generously taken into consideration some of your practical suggestions for reducing the threat. Now is the moment to broaden your scope by concentrating on the prevalence of hopefuls purchasing delegate seats during primaries.

During party primaries, a few delegates publicly boasted about the large sums of money they had earned from candidates. You should boost up your efforts to support the actions that the appropriate law enforcement and security agencies are taking to combat this evil activity.