Candidates of the various political parties for the Edo State governorship election scheduled for September 19 have introduced new dimensions to their campaign activities to woo voters across the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that this method differed from the conventional electioneering where candidates gathered people in particular spots or rallies to sell their manifesto to them.
The new method involved the use of comedians, dancers and pretty girls who usually converged in a particular spot to attract people before addressing the crowd on why their candidates should be voted.
NAN reports that their targeted spots were always around crowded environments such as markets, bus stops and shopping malls.
The supporters, who moved about with loud speakers and other musical instruments, hold crowds spell-bound with performances before reeling out the plans of their candidates to them.
The comedians crack jokes, the dancers dance to the admiration of the audience, while the musicians sing to the applause of those around.
NAN reports that candidates of the leading political parties in the state: All Progressives Congress and Peoples Democratic Party, Osagie Ize-Iyamu and Godwin Obaseki, were the ones that had used this methods the most to woo voters.
When NAN asked an audience about the plan of the candidate whose supporters were canvassing votes for, she simply reply by saying: “I didn’t listen to what they said, but just enjoying myself with their jokes.”
A performer, who identified herself as Imade, said she was part of the show to canvass votes for her candidate based on self conviction.
Made said: “Nobody is paying me to do this and I can tell you for sure that most of us are doing this purely on volunteer basis.”
It would be recalled that Ize-Iyamu and Obaseki had slugged it out in the state’s 2016 governorship poll.