An Anti-Corruption body, Transparency International, have claimed that the Trader Moni scheme, which is a collateral-free loan initiative aimed at petty traders, is a means of getting votes by the APC.
Speaking on a program on Channels Television, the chairman of the anti-corruption organisation, Awwal Rafsanjani, said that the scheme is an “official use of public funds in the name of TraderMoni to actually induce voters.”
Rafsanjani also noted that the scheme which could have been done at any time was done close to the election which just makes it more suspicious.
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“It was not done three years ago. It was only started close to election time. So, the allegation by many Nigerians that this is clearly a case of vote buying using public funds goes contrary to our constitution and to having a free and fair election.” he said.
“That is why the Independent National Electoral Commission itself has seen this danger. The vote buying we are seeing has transformed to have more official recognition through the acts that unfortunately we are seeing performed by some of the agencies using public funds.
“This is despite the statement by the President that public funds will not be used for his re-election campaign. But this, unfortunately, is contrary to what Nigerians are seeing.”
“Clearly, this is vote buying, as far as I am concerned,” he concluded
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