It has been harvests of arrest of suspected vote buyers in the Presidential and National Assembly Elections in Nigeria A trend which International Observers and Political Pundits have described as counter productive to the country’s nascent democracy.
It might interest you to know that not less than twenty persons including a House of Representatives member and a University Professor have been arrested so far for alleged attempt to use cash to buy votes.
Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, monitoring the Presidential and National Assembly Polls have made some arrests of suspected vote buyers. One Dr. Cletus Tyokyaa, a lecturer with the Sarwuan Tarka University formerly known as University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State was arrested at the RCM Polling Unit in Daudu, Guma Local Government Area of the state with the sum of 306, 700 naira in various denominations stashed in his car.
The information contained in a Statement by the Commission says Luck ran out on the suspect when he drove to the voting centre which was different from his polling unit and tried to run upon sighting operatives of the Commission.
When asked about his mission at the center, Tyokyaa could not provide a coherent explanation, leading to arrest, and the search of his car revealed the money in various denominations but he was released after volunteering a statement to the Commission.
The EFCC also arrested a man for alleged vote buying with 194,000 naira at Gidan Zakka polling unit, Goron Dutse area of Kano Municipal Local Government, Kano State.
A party agent buying votes through bank transfers was also arrested in Abaji, Abuja while two persons, Stanley Nsemo and Eno Amponsah were arrested in Calabar, Cross River State with the sum of Four Hundred and Fifty United States Dollars and 156, 800 naira on suspicion of alleged votes buying.
Earlier, a woman with 18 voter cards was intercepted in a sting operation at Badarwa area of Kaduna, Kaduna State.
The woman, a Maryam Mamman Alhaji, who is a member of the support group of one of the leading political parties, also had in her possession, a 17-page list containing names of eligible voters, their bank details and phone numbers as accredited under Badarwa and Malali Ward 01 and 08, Kaduna North Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
She was nabbed after undercover operatives pretended they had voter cards and were desperate to sell them.
She is currently being grilled by operatives of the Kaduna Zonal Command of the EFCC, with a view to unravelling other members of her syndicate whom she claimed are also collecting voters’ cards and paying monies through PoS or direct bank transfers
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