Udengs Eradiri Blames Electoral Woes on Voters

Udengs Eradiri, Labour Party governorship candidate during the 2023 Bayelsa state governorship elections blames voters for electoral woes at the polls.

Speaking on a national television on Saturday night, Udengs Eradiri said he went to market and wasn’t able to buy the goods because he was not ready to anybody’s vote.

He said, “I went to the market and wasn’t able to buy the goods in the market. What we saw was not an election but a place where money was exchanged for goods. On the face value, if you look at some units, you would think everything is going on smoothly but as you vote, the agents who have already been compromised including the staff of INEC would see whom you have voted for. Once you vote and you want to put it in the ballot box, you would show them and cash is exchanged.

“Bayelsa State funds for the development of the state was on the streets being shared to gather votes, all those votes they are brandishing before the media are all bought votes. They cannot go to an election without the people’s money. Individuals everywhere were betrayed. I stood my grounds and I’m made to live with it, so it is not the people’s choice.

“Yes, because they are encouraging the people in government to behave the way they like because this is an opportunity to stop them. My suggestion is that we can try isolation, the voting area and the ballot box from the agents, I am just thinking how we can do this things to keep agents away so once you go in there, it would be difficult to access the votes. If we can be strict with that, we would see changes.

“But at the end of the day, the police and the INEC Staff are also part of the conspiracy, so when you are trying to block it by law, they would device another means. For instance now how am I going to go to court and say that there was vote buying because you won’t see it happening there but behind the scenes you must show the agent your ballot paper.

“I have been trying to manage to bring everyone together but because I’m not the candidate that brings money, it is from my hard earned money that I decided to do this so I know that it would be a legacy in my generation. But they expect that as party leaders do, when the excos gather, you need to bring money, that wasn’t happening. If I have any money, I want to make sure that I see where it enters so I was supervising every process to see that money is not wasted.

“I have 2 hands and legs, they all have the same, I go out to work and raise money to carry out the process that I think that we can all work together to change, then they want to just sit down and spend, they felt I wasn’t doing the needful by bringing money”, Udengs Eradiri was quoted as saying.

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