An 85-year-old indigene of Umuleri community in Anambra East Local Government Area of Anambra State, Pa Francis Emeka, has explained why he does not collect money to vote.
Although there has been no evidence of vote buying in the area, Emeka said his decision not to collect money to vote was influenced by the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe.
In an interview with our correspondent, Emeka recalled an encounter in Niger State, in the former Northern Region, where Azikiwe advised him and others against taking money to vote.
He said, “I came to vote. I don’t collect money to vote. During the time of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and Awolowo, they came to Northern Region. I was in Niger at that time.
Mopol was beating me when I climbed Nnamdi Azikiwe’s vehicle. Then he said they should leave me. Everybody knows that Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was a popular man in Nigeria. He was telling us at that time that we should not collect money to vote.
“So, from that time, I have always come out to vote, and I do not collect money to vote.”
Today, he is exercising his right to vote in line with that long-standing principle, refusing any monetary inducement, as 16 political parties contest the Anambra governorship against the sitting governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo of All Progressives Grand Alliance.
