The Independent National Electoral Commission has said that the deployment of anti-graft agencies to Kogi and Bayelsa is meant to track vote buyers, sellers and to get money launderers.
The commission said that the involvement of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission was not meant to intimidate voters.
The INEC Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Osaze Oluwole-Uzzi, made the clarification in an interview with The PUNCH, while reacting to enquiries whether the involvement of anti-corruption agencies would not scare voters.
Odunews.com had earlier confirmed that the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had said officials of the EFCC and ICPC would be deployed in polling centres to arrest vote buyers in the elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states.
But Oluwole-Uzzi said, “If EFCC comes to your house, will you be bothered? Do you have N35m in your bank account? So, you don’t have anything to worry about. It is people who are politically-exposed that should be bothered.
“It is people who either have skeletons in their cupboards or who have had some kinds of dealings or involved in money laundering or unexplained money. We are going to collaborate with the EFCC and the ICPC.”
