23rd February, 2023
By Ibironke Ariyo
The Committee on Youths Mobilisation and Sensitisation (CYMS) says it has commenced training on tracking vote buying in collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to ensure free and fair elections.
The Director General, CYMS, Mr Obinna Nwaka, said this during the 2023 pre-election conference and capacity building for observers on Thursday in Abuja.
Nwaka said CYMS’s policing volunteers were also working in synergy with security agencies on enforcement in the field, which he said would be followed with an official report to the EFCC for the prosecution of individuals or candidates involved in vote buying.
He said CYMS was ready to track anyone who engaged in vote buying as the group knew how to get them, saying such would not be tolerated in the forthcoming election.
He reaffirmed CYMS’s support for the EFCC in the fight against corruption, and that youths were also joining forces with the commission to say no to vote-buying to avoid trading the future of the Youth.
He added that 93,469,008 registered voters were ready to cast their votes in the forthcoming elections, adding that Lagos had the highest total registered voters of 7,060,195 and Ekiti with the lowest figure of 987,667.
“Looking at the demographic, age group and occupational registered voters of a total 93, 469,008, the youth between ages (18-34) is 39.65 per cent with 37,060,399, while the ages between 35-49 is 35.75 per cent with 33,413,591.
“Comparing to the present status quo of youths gives us the total number 70,473,990, which is equivalent to 75.40 per cent votes of young people from the entire registered number of voters,” he said.
The CYMS DG commended the young people for their involvement in the voters’ awareness programme, resilience in participation and PVC registration.
He urged them to use the same energy to cast their votes in the forthcoming election.
NAN