Barely three days to the Edo State governorship election, the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) under the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, and the wife of the All Progressives Congress governorship candidate, Idia Ize-Iyamu, on Tuesday empowered 2,000 women in Edo State.
Addressing beneficiaries in Benin City, Idia Ize-Iyamu said the empowerment scheme which is under the Micro Enterprise Enhancement Scheme (MEES) was to support women across the 192 wards to enable them fund their Small and Medium-sized Enterprises(SMEs).
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However, Edo State People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Council has raised the alarm over plans by the opposition party to use the empowerment scheme to buy votes ahead of the Saturday, September 19 governorship election.
Chris Nehikhare, Chairman of the Media and Publicity sub-committee of the campaign council, in a statement, condemned the scheme, noting that it is “barefaced” vote-buying.
“We are aware that the voters are being influenced and their PVCs profiled and their data taken. The voters are told to remain at home, while the details of the PVCs are being collected to advance sinister motives. We are alerting the world to this barefaced vote-buying and want to put it on record that the APC is subverting the democratic process”, he said.
Responding, Edo State Publicity secretary of APC, Chris Azebamwan said, “Yes empowerment was carried out. But, was it limited to APC alone? Also, there was no election yesterday, so how would that be vote buying? PDP are only chasing shadows.
