The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has assured Nigerians of its readiness and competence to combat vote buying and other forms of electoral fraud in order to ensure transparent, free, and fair elections in 2023.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday, EFCC Spokesperson Wilson Uwujaren quoted the commission’s Chairman, Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa, as saying this at the North-Central Stakeholder’s Roundtable on the 2023 general elections.
The roundtable was organised by Abuja’s Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA).
According to Bawa, the EFCC is well-equipped to deal with any type of electoral fraud.
He urged Nigerians to avoid any form of electoral malpractice, emphasising that Nigerians’ participation would ensure the success of the upcoming elections.
The EFCC boss, speaking through the commission’s Assistant Director, Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, emphasised that vote buying and other electoral misconduct are human practises that can be stopped.
“Intelligence is about people, vote buying is about people and vote selling is about people, those that are selling votes are not ghosts, those that are buying are also not ghosts, they are all human beings.
“This shows that our individual and corporate engagements in trying to bring out what we see around us is important.
“In the EFCC, we have this mantra, if you see something, you must say something and we will do something.
“For any form of vote buying, we must all reject it, if we see anyone that is doing it, we must report him or her to the EFCC,” he said.
He stated that the EFCC was doing all it could within the ambit of the law to prevent vote buying and prosecute those arrested.
“It is within the ambit of our mandate to investigate and prosecute cases of electoral fraud, vote buying, vote selling and any form of electoral malpractice.
“We have been doing it not just for this election but in the past, there are so many cases in court bordering on electoral malpractice,” he said.
Executive Director, CTA, Faith Nwadishi, in her remarks called for result-oriented method of combating electoral fraud through covert operations.
“The recent initiative of collaborating with the EFCC, ICPC, NFIU, NBC, IPAC and other stakeholders by INEC during the Stakeholders’ Summit aimed at addressing the influence of money on the 2023 general elections must be encouraged and the decisions reached implemented,” she said. (NAN)
