‘INEC, EFCC assure of collaboration ahead of 2019’

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has said the electoral body will no longer tolerate vote buying on election days.

Professor Yakubu said this yesterday in Abuja when he received the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, at the commission’s headquarters.

“I want to assure Nigerians that INEC shall remain an unbiased umpire. We are here to work for Nigerian people and on election date, the votes they cast will determine who wins.

“INEC is worried that politicians go to polling booths to induce voters. Our democracy shouldn’t be for sale in the open market. Open vote buying will not be tolerated on election days. Votes aren’t for sale. It is the right of Nigerians to vote for whoever and that will be upheld by INEC,” he said.

Magu, in his remarks, said the anti-graft agency would collaborate with INEC.

“I am prepared to collaborate and support whenever our services are needed. We are ready to support INEC. We are all Nigerians and all of us need to collaborate to fight corruption. It is affecting all of us. People have to run out of this country to escape the evil of corruption,” he said.

“Corruption is a disaster. It has done too much damage to this country. INEC is also fighting corruption, maybe not in the way I am doing it.

“When you tell Nigerians to register and vote, it is a way of fighting corruption,” Magu said.