Dennis Agbo, a representative, stated that the election that elected him to the federal legislature was not rigged.
Agbo, who was elected to the House on the Labour Party platform and represents the Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency in Enugu State, also urged candidates for elective office to abstain from election rigging.
The federal parliamentarian claimed that he received 28,750 votes compared to his rival’s 14,300 votes in order to win the 2023 HoR National Assembly elections.
I did not rig the election that brought me to the House of Representatives, God is my witness, the federal lawmaker said on Monday at the Signature TV-hosted Season 4 premiere of Corruption Tori in Abuja. If I effectively use the funds provided to me for projects and later use my own to work with them, God will bless me. My kids will attend school, I’ll build the house of my dreams, get the car I want, and so on—all without being corrupt.
“You don’t need to rig the election; my supporters came out to vote for me in the rain and the sun, and I received 28750 votes. 14,300 votes went to the runner-up, who did not receive half of my support. I didn’t gain any votes for myself, so I’m working hard to bring all the goods from Abuja back to my community on behalf of my people.
“In Nigeria today, when you identify yourself as a politician, people start to view you as a thief because politicians steal votes from their own people. They steal your vote and use it to forcefully take over when you didn’t support them. Election rigging is, therefore, a serious form of corruption.
“We will be driving on bad roads in Nigeria when a public official receives funding to build a road and syphons the money into his pocket or bank account. Kidnapping, robberies, damaged cars, and accidents are all caused by bad roads, he continued.
He warned the students at Government Junior Secondary School, Mpape, the event’s location, not to cheat on exams because doing so also constitutes corruption and to refuse to be used as a rigging device by politicians during elections.
“Don’t let yourself be used to rig elections,” he advised. “The person who was supposed to win won’t win again, and by cheating on the exam, the person who was supposed to come in first won’t come in first again. Avoid cheating, read your books, comprehend the material covered in exams, and then write down what you already know to place first.
By favouritism, man knows man, someone who was supposed to get a job won’t get it, and that person who was supposed to get a job but didn’t get it, the work will be done poorly.
When describing how he has maintained his reputation as a good politician by abstaining from corruption, he made the point that one need not be corrupt in order to succeed; in fact, one can succeed even more than a corrupt person with hard work.
“People believed there were no good politicians, but I’m working to change that. I am known as Mr. Integrity in my community because I don’t go the wrong way.
Also speaking, Mr. VinMartin Ilo, Chief Executive Officer of Signature TV, explained how the campaign against corruption targeted the younger generation and insisted that this was done on purpose.
Ilo stated, “Working with McArthur, targeting young children was a deliberate strategy for us because we know that if we catch them young, children have a lot of influence; they would impact their parents, friends, and neighbours, but more importantly, they will start the journey and they will run with this campaign, and that is happening.
He continued by listing the accomplishments of the organisation and adding, “We have been working to market women, mechanics, and a host of other Nigerians because they don’t get this message. I have to say that we have accomplished a lot.
“As of right now, we have 20 anti-corruption school clubs, a secondary school essay competition that has been running for more than three years without interruption, town halls all over the place, and local women who we have interacted with and tried to mentor in this campaign have organised office holders and office seekers, and we are holding them to account for the first time by asking them what they promised and how they are keeping the promise. One of this campaign’s greatest successes is that.
The programme won’t end with the support of MacArthur, an American organisation, he said. “The kind of training and support that we have from MacArthur at Signature and Corruption Tori.”
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