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EFCC arrests 20 suspects for vote-buying in Kwara
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) operatives on Saturday arrested 20 persons for alleged vote-buying during the governorship and state House of Assembly elections in Kwara State.
The Zonal head of EFCC, Ilorin, Mr. Isyaku Sharu, who confirmed the development to journalists in his office, said the suspects were between the ages of 18 and 25.
He said: ‘‘Majority of the people arrested were directly involved in vote-buying. We got credible intelligence and we acted on it. Some of the arrests were made in Omu-Aran, Ilorin South, and Ilorin West. We were all over the 16 local government areas.
“We recovered huge amounts of cash and point of sales (POS) machines. We are still investigating the matter.”
READ ALSO: Vote-buying: EFCC arrests varsity lecturer with N306,700 in Benue
Sharu also disclosed that before the elections, the commission embarked on an enlightenment programme on vote-buying in the media.
“We informed them that vote-buying was a criminal offence as structured in the Electoral Act.
“We published our numbers for people to call and during the last elections, we got calls and we were able to arrest one person for vote buying and we will soon charge him to court,” the EFCC official added.
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