The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commissions (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, has said that officials of the Commission are patrolling different polling units where the presidential and National Assembly elections are taking place on Saturday to forestall vote buying.
Bawa made this known in an interview with Channels Television on Saturday.
“This impression out there, you see there is a mandate of prevention, there is a mandate of enforcement. The mere fact that our men are there will tend to prevent a lot of things that ordinarily could have happened if we were not there,” Bawa said.
He said officials of the Commission have been going round since Friday to monitor vote buying but added that they are challenged in prosecuting politicians buying votes with food items and materials because they can’t pre-empt what their real intentions actually are.
“Our men have been going round since yesterday and one of the things we have since on the field is that a lot of people have started even yesterday to buy votes in kind, distributing food items, distributing materials and all of that since yesterday.
“The challenge we were facing yesterday was whether or not to effect arrest because you can’t pre-empt what somebody is going to do by distributing items that he has. So we have been going round to investigate, but the information we have today is that a lot of the politicians are trying to influence voters in cash and kind,” he said.
“Our men have been going round since yesterday and one of the things we have since on the field is that a lot of people have started even yesterday to buy votes in kind, distributing food items, distributing materials and all of that since yesterday.
“The challenge we were facing yesterday was whether or not to effect arrest because you can’t pre-empt what somebody is going to do by distributing items that he has. So we have been going round to investigate, but the information we have today is that a lot of the politicians are trying to influence voters in cash and kind,” he said.
One of the polling units where the EFCC officials were sighted by our reporter, Bidemi Bello, is in Ikenne Local Government Area of Ogun State.
Speaking with journalists, the leader of the EFCC officials, Chinedu Ozuah, said the Commission is acting on its mandate to ensure that no one sells or buys votes.
Ozua disclosed that the officials of the Commission are in every state across the nation for the same mission, adding that some of them are not on uniform but operating undercover.
“The mission of the Commission is simple, like you can see in our vehicles ‘say no to vote buying’. The Commission in its mandate to ensure that nobody buys or sells his or her vote, has mandated operatives of the Commission to check this.
“We are in every state of the nation at the moment moving from polling unit to polling unit, checking to see that everything is going as expected that nobody is trading his vote by any means, so this is basically what the Commission is doing,” Ozuah said.
He said they have not arrested anyone so far today in Ogun State, adding that they have covered major parts of the state.
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