By joshua 
Ayo Ola
The spokesperson for Project Victory Call Initiative (PVC) Paula Bell-Gam, has warned against vote marketing popularly called vote buying.
She said vote buying is inimical to democracy, adding that vote marketing has many ills and is counter-productive.
She spoke on Saturday during the group’s courtesy visit to the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Edo State council. The visit was in conjunction with Rotary Club Benin GRA,
She said the visit was to intimate members of the union of their resolve to sensitise and educate the public, particularly the electorate, about the ills and counterproductive effects of vote buying and selling.
According to her, the effects of the menace of vote buying and selling on the larger society have become unacceptable.
He warned that the practice must stop, adding that the media has a prominent role to play in curbing the unacceptable menace.
Bell-Gam said, “What happened in the last primaries of political parties by way of financial inducement by politicians was a national embarrassment and such should stop.
“It is high time we stop the mindset of vote buying and selling and as such we are embarking on a peaceful march to drive home our point.”
The President of Rotary Club Of Benin, GRA, District 914 of Rotary International, Rtn Nkechi Oyebuchi, said come the 3rd of October, 2022; Rotary Club will carry out a nationwide peace walk in commemoration of the Nigeria Independence anniversary and to use the occasion to sensitise the electorate of the evil of selling of vote.
She said, “There is going to be a peace walk, commemorative of the nation’s Independence anniversary and we are using the opportunity to sensitise the voters of the dangers of selling their vote for a paltry amount of money for an immediate benefit and forgetting the long term negative effects of selling one’s conscience for a paltry amount of money that takes nobody nowhere.”
The Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Edo State council, Comrade Festus Alenkhe, thanked the team that visited for their efforts to deepen the country’s democratic growth through advocacy.
He promised that the Edo State council of NUJ would do everything within its power to partner with the organizations to have credible polls in the country.
Alenkhe said, “Journalists have a very strategic role to play in deepening democracy in Nigeria and according to him their activities would be adequately supported by Edo journalists stressing that vote buying is a ravaging cankerworm that has eaten deep into the national fabrics due to poverty which he said needs credible collaboration to curb through adequate sensitisation.”