Ahead of the 2023 general election, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday declared its intention to again partner with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on incidences of vote buying.
The anti-graft agency said it is ever ready to work with INEC in curbing vote buying in the next year’s polls and beyond.
It has been reported that the EFCC Chairman Abdulrasheed Bawa told pressmen in Abuja that the commission would partner with INEC to arrest and prosecute persons involved in vote buying.
Bawa noted that “We will continue to do what we have to do, we are trying to ensure that illegitimate funds are not finding their way into our electoral processes.”
The EFCC boss, who spoke after presenting the commission’s 2023 budget before the Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption advanced that cases of those arrested for vote buying in previous elections were still ongoing.
Recall that News360 info reported earlier this week that the Ilorin command of EFCC had arraigned four person’s before a High Court sitting in Osogbo, the Osun state capital for vote buying in the state’s July 16 governorship election.
Bawa, however, described the CBN’s announcement on the new naira note as a welcome idea, noting that it will help monitor people holding currencies legitimately and illegitimately.
He said “We welcome the policy; it is a good thing that the country is designing its currency, because how can you have an effective monetary policy when you don’t have control over 85 percent of your currencies.
Out there, people are holding it, people are using it to speculate on foreign currencies, and so coming out with this policy ,the government is trying to contend with it.”
“I am sure that those people that are holding back this money whether legitimately or illegitimately, we will be able to monitor and the right cause of the law will take its course,” Bawa added.
Speaking about the commission’s fight against cybercrime, the EFCC chairman explained that the support of Nigerian youth is needed in the fight against cybercrime, hence he used the medium to appeal for their assistance.
He furthered that the activities of those criminals have ruined the image of Nigeria in the global arena, and it calls for an agent need to curb the criminal activities in the country.
He pointed out that between January and now, the agency had convicted 2,847 cybercrime perpetrators, the highest record so far.
“These are Nigerians from the youthful constituency, they should join me in fighting the scourge of Cybercrime.
It is part of our mandate to fight cybercrime, to fight advance fee fraud,and we are working in conformity with the law.
I am pleading with them not to stop doing such things at this time of transition of the country in terms of elections, in terms of government efforts to see that the economy is back on track,” he noted.
While appreciating the National Assembly’s support, he said ” I want to use this opportunity to thank the National Assembly for their support as EFCC Chairman, particularly the committee on anti-corruption.
“They have been with us 100 percent. You remember recently they have worked with us to pass landmark Acts and legislations and the President has assented to it.
“So, we are working with them towards ensuring that this country is free of economic and financial crimes,” Bawa remarked.
