Bayelsa Guber: ‘Vote buying overwhelming’ – LP candidate alleges

<p>The Labour Party, LP, governorship candidate in Bayelsa State, Udengs Eradiri, has alleged that Saturday’s election in the state was marred by massive vote buying.</p>, <p>Eradiri described the level of vote buying as ‘overwhelming.’</p>, <p>Eradiri, who spoke at Agudama-Ekpetiama, Yenagoa Local Government Area, claimed that he was even approached to step down, but declined.</p>, <p>He said he was particularly disappointed about the open cases of vote buying, because his campaign was partly devoted to educating the people not to sell their votes.</p>, <p>“I had thought my messages against money politics would have been tracking with the people, but I was wrong. I am deeply disappointed, I was wrong.</p>, <p>“My greatest disappointment was with a woman from this community whom I offered scholarship to her son, but today sold her vote for N14,000,” he added.</p>, <p>The LP governorship candidate regretted that the electorates seemed to have opted for money instead of voting for the right candidate.</p>, <p>“We have a long way to go in stopping money politics in this country.</p>, <p>“I thought I had found a solution but I was wrong. I did not come into this race to buy votes,” Eradiri said.</p>, <p>According to him, votes were freely traded for between N12,000 and N40,000 per vote.</p>