Election that brought me to parliament not rigged – Agbo

A member of the House of Representatives, Dennis Agbo, said that the election that brought him to the federal parliament was not rigged.

Agbo, who represents Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency in Enugu State, was elected into the House on the platform of the Labour Party, also advised politicians vying for elective offices to shun rigging during elections.

The federal parliamentarian, while explaining how he emerged as the winner in the 2023 HoR National Assembly elections, said he garnered 28,750 votes against his contender, who polled 14,300 votes.

Speaking at the launch of Season 4 of Corruption Tori on Monday, organised by Signature TV in Abuja, the federal lawmaker stated, “I did not rig the election that brought me to the House of Representatives, God is my witness. I use the monies given to me for projects well and then later use my own to work with it, this will make God bless me. Without being corrupt my children will go to school, build a house of my dream, buy the car I want, and so on.

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“You don’t need to rig the election, my people voted for me, I got 28750 votes, this number came out to vote for me under the rain, and under the sun. The person that came second got 14,300 who did not get half of my votes. I didn’t add one vote to myself and that is why I am working hard for my people to bring them all the goodies from Abuja back home.

“Today in Nigeria, when you introduce yourself as a politician, people begin to look at you as a thief because politicians steal their own; the type of stealing they do is stealing of votes. When you did not vote for them, they steal your vote and put themselves in power by force. So, that is serious corruption, election rigging is corruption.

“When a public officer is given money to build a road and he siphons the money into his pocket or bank account, we will be driving on bad roads in Nigeria. Bad roads cause kidnapping, robbery, spoil motors, and accidents,” he added.

While admonishing students of Government Junior Secondary School, Mpape, the venue of the event, he told them not to cheat during exams because that also amounts to corruption, as well as rejecting to be used by politicians as a rigging tool during elections.

He noted, “Do not allow yourself to be used to rig election because the person who supposes to win will not win again, and by cheating in the exam, the person who was supposed to come first will not come first again. Do not cheat, read your books, understand what you are taught in exams write what you know and you will come first.

“By favouritism, man knows man, somebody who was supposed to get a job will not get it, and that person who was supposed to get a job and did not get it, the work will not be done well.

Describing how he has been holding on to being a good politician by not being corrupt, he pointed out that someone who is not corrupt can still attain the heights of success even more than a corrupt person through hard work, there is no need to be corrupt.

“People thought there were no good politicians, I am trying to be a good politician. In my constituency, I am tagged Mr. Integrity because I don’t follow the bad way.

Also speaking, Chief Executive Officer, Signature TV, Mr. VinMartin Ilo, while elucidating how the campaign against corruption was targeted at the young generation, maintained that it was a deliberate strategy.

Ilo said, “Targeting young children was an intentional strategy for us, working with McArthur, 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 what is happening.

Giving a list of the organisation’s achievements, he further remarked that “We have been campaigning to market women, mechanics, and a host of others because these categories of Nigerians don’t get this message. I must tell you that we have achieved a lot.

“As we speak today, we have 20 anti-corruption school clubs, we have more than 3 years of an uninterrupted essay competition for secondary schools, we’ve had our town halls everywhere, and see local women that we’ve interacted with, that we have tried to mentor in this campaign, organised office holders and office seekers, and hold them to account for the first time and ask them, what did you promise and how are you keeping the promise? That is one of the biggest achievements of this campaign.

“The kind of training and support that we have from MacArthur at Signature and Corruption Tori is not a programme that will end with the support of MacArthur which is an American organisation,” he stated.