According to Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), 65 people were detained on Saturday in 28 states for allegedly inducing voters during the governorship and Houses of Assembly polls. This is contained in a statement released by its spokesman, Mr Wilson Uwujaren.
20 of the offenders, according to Uwujaren, were detained in Kwara, and 13 were detained in Kaduna State. He added that in addition to the 12 suspects detained in Rivers, arrests were made in the states of Gombe, Sokoto, Kebbi, and Niger. Additionally, four suspects were detained in the states of Cross River and Akwa Ibom.
Ten men and three women were detained in Kaduna State. They were captured by EFCC agents who were either looking over intelligence files or just happened to be watching.
He said, “A suspect allegedly involved in vote buying was nabbed at School Road, Unguwan Rimi in Kaduna. The suspect, who initially resisted arrest, is however in custody pending the conclusion of investigation.
“Also in Kaduna, a team arrested a suspect with voter coupons, which he confessed would be used to trace and pay those who voted for his party,’’ Uwujiaren stated.
He added that two suspects were also detained for vote-buying by the EFCC squad that was monitoring voting near the Local Education Authority School in Kabala Doki, Kaduna.
He mentioned that the suspects were taken into custody with N67,500, a roster of voter names, PVC numbers, and bank account information.
The EFCC spokesman added that further inquiry had revealed that the suspects’ primary method of inducing eligible voters was by providing them with cash, money transfers, coupons, or recharge cards.
According to Uwujaren, a search of their belongings and phones revealed that the majority of them had transferred funds into the bank accounts of some of the voters on the lists they retrieved.
Voter cards, cash, lists of voter names and account numbers, and telephone recharge cards were among the things seized from the suspects, he emphasised.