Ahead of the 2027 general elections, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has warned that vote-buying and money politics will not suppress the will of Nigerians.
The warning was given in Ogun State on Thursday by the PDP deputy governorship candidate for the 2027 election, Hajia Yemi Sowunmi-Kolapo.
Kolapo said the politics of throwing money around will only drain the spender, not buy the conscience of voters.
She spoke during a condolence visit to a bereaved supporter in Ijemo, Abeokuta, which turned into a campaign rally for the PDP ticket of Ladi Adebutu and Kolapo.
“The politics of throwing money around will only drain the spender rather than suppress the will of Ogun State indigenes and residents,” she said.
Kolapo said the PDP’s ward-to-ward tour across Ogun had shown that voters were increasingly rejecting financial inducement, despite the economic hardship in the country.
She claimed the party had continued to receive defectors from the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in their thousands, despite what she described as propaganda over the Independent National Electoral Commission’s exclusion of names.
“This shows nothing other than the fact that indigenes of the state will speak loudly with their votes in the coming polls,” she said.
“Ladi Adebutu is the next governor of Ogun State. Let them continue spending,” she declared.
Kolapo described the Ogun contest as a test case for 2027 nationally, whether incumbency and money can override what she called the people’s will.
“They know the difference between a true son of the soil and a ‘Temu’ version,” she said, in an apparent attack on opponents she accused of being political outsiders.
She said Ogun State could not be conquered with money, urging voters not to “sell their heritage for peanuts that won’t last.”
According to her, the Adebutu/Kolapo ticket represents an ‘Ogun for Ogun’ agenda, a local version of the PDP’s national campaign for restructuring resources to benefit the people.
NEWSUNPLUG reports that residents at the event chanted “Ogun for Ogun! Power to the people!” and pledged to mobilise from house to house to protect their votes.
A resident identified as Caleb Alao from Oke-Ijemo said, “We are tired of the APC government.
Many of the schemes established by the PDP administration have been abandoned, and there is joblessness in the state.”
Also speaking, Folake Adeyemi, a community women leader, said, “APC has brought hardship: the cost of rice, the cost of school fees, everything is high. We want a government that will feel our pain.”