The lawyer lamented that "purchase of court judgments" in secret has become a recurrent feature in the country in recent times.
A former Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini, has given reasons election rigging will be impossible in Nigeria in 2023.
Mr Igini spoke when he appeared as a guest on Arise TV's The Morning Show on Wednesday.
The former REC said some of the suggestions adduced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to tackle election rigging have been backed by the 2022 Electoral Law.
He said the introduction of technology by the law, which eliminated manual accreditation and voting, has strengthened the electoral process in the country.
"The vote buying, we are talking about, who is telling you it is not going to happen? But people are going to lose their money," he said.
Mr Igini, a lawyer, said some politicians who are scheming to rig the 2023 poll on the basis of the number of registered voters will be frustrated by the law, saying aside from the number of registered voters in the INEC database, a new register for accredited voters will be used for the general elections.
"So, those who are making permutation of victory (should) be careful because you may have millions in your local government area or state or anywhere or any region, (but) INEC does not deal with that anymore... because Section 51 of the law has said that voting is based on the number of accredited voters, not the total number of registered voters anymore," he said.
'That window for rigging is gone.'
The former commissioner also said the adoption of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAs) as the machine for reading Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and authenticating voters will eliminate chances of election rigging in the country.
"Look no more incident forms again in Nigeria. The commission is now doing bimodal accreditation. No individual Nigerian can bypass the BVAS. Without BVAS, you cannot vote in Nigeria anymore," he stated.
He, however, said in the "unlikely event" that a voter's fingers could not be confirmed, the voter's face, PVC's bar code, unique personal identification number or the voter's surname will be used for accreditation.
He expressed concern that court judges may be used to reverse the use of the BVAs and other arrangements for the 2023 election by INEC.
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The lawyer lamented that "purchase of court judgments" in secret has become a recurrent feature in the country in recent times.
"Nigerians are waiting for the judge that will give such an order (to sabotage electoral processes) either discreetly or publicly."
'Accept monies from politicians, but vote according to your conscience'
Mr Igini conceded that "hunger and poverty" are major factors encouraging vote buying in the country, but urged Nigerians to accept monies from vote buyers and still vote according to their conscience.
He said INEC has resolved to keep its voting cubicles away from public glare to encourage secret balloting and protect voters from being monitored by the buyers.
"Take the money and go to the cubicle and vote (according to your conscience). INEC arrangement of the cubicle is going to be different now. People will lose their money. We are about to see the end of electoral rigging in Nigeria," he stated.
