NO PVC, NO VOTING IN 2023 ELECTIONS, INEC DECLARES

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madukwe, paid out about $115 million to politicians to compromise the election.

Bawa, who was also represented by the Chief Superintendent in the Commission, Adukwu Michael, however, noted that the EFCC had embarked on voter education and working to ensure that politicians did not spend beyond the stipulated amount.

According to him, "The commission’s focus in election management is discouraging the use of money to influence the outcome of election. Electoral spending by politicians often leads to voter inducement and vote buying.

"Parties often induce voter with money because they lack proper and realistic policies to convince the electorate to vote them into power. Whenever one is induced to sell his vote, he automatic loses moral ground to challenge corrupt tendencies of those elected.

"In the 2015 discreet investigation, the Commission was able to uncovered a ground plan to compromise the 2015 general election through massive cash payment to politicians. $115 million was paid out to politicians by former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madukwe, to compromise the election.

"Some of the money was recovered while many of the culprits are being prosecuted with few conviction recorded. At the heart of EFCC strategy to curb voter inducement is inter-agency collaboration and information sharing.

"The EFCC is complementing the efforts of other stakeholders in educating the electorate on why it is important for their votes to not be traded. We are working with INEC to determine and to enforce provisions of the Electoral Act as it relates to limit of campaign spending by different categories of office seekers. This is an intelligence-driven exercise."

Imo State Governor, Hope

Uzodimma, also said political parties and their candidates must adhere to democratic norms and "collectively intervene to achieve the kind of credible elections that would further deepen democracy.

The keynote speaker, Senator Pius Anyim, argued that political parties must adhere to the principles of social justice as a means of preventing crisis.

"The rumblings in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC), are surely due to perceived social injustice in the management of the affairs of the parties. The pain of the G-5 governors in the PDP is simply the sidelining of a section of the country in the sharing of party structures," he said, calling on IPAC to step forward in playing a role to stabilise the democratic environment by ensuring that parties take their rightful position as the bedrock of democracy in Nigeria.

Police: No Sensitive Materials Burnt in Ebonyi INEC Attack

The Ebonyi State Police Command, has clarified that no sensitive materials were burnt, when the INEC office in Iboko community, Izzi Local Government Area of the state was burnt.

In a statement issued by the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Chris Anyanwu, the incident was an internal fire outbreak from the office, noting that the facility was not burnt by hoodlums as alleged.

"There was no sign of external attack or breakage into the building before the fire outbreak. The fire destroyed inflammable items such as generating sets, plastic buckets/ cans, ballot boxes, cubicles, etc, kept in the building, which are capable of escalating the inferno.

"There was no electric power supply at the time of the incident to infer/suspect same as a probable cause. There were no sensitive materials in the building as confirmed by the Electoral Officer in charge the area,

"No fire-fighting tools were installed in the office/premises. Some leftover PVCs locked in the steel cabinet were destroyed by the fire. Record of the left-over PVCs engulfed in the inferno are intact with the E.O of the area.

"The value of items destroyed, thereby, is yet to be ascertained. The immediate cause of the incident is yet to be unravelled, and the same INEC office was engulfed in a similar circumstance sometime ago" he stated.

He however, called on government at all levels and Yakubu to install a solar-powered CCTV cameras and fire-fighting tools in all INEC offices to forestall such incidents ahead of the elections.

Lawmakers Condemn Attacks, Urge Politicians to Uphold Peace Accord

The House of Representatives, yesterday, condemned all forms of attack on the facilities and buildings of the federal government in the country, particularly, attacks on the facilities and infrastructure of INEC.

The lawmakers, however, urged politicians to uphold the peace accord, which they signed, by admonishing their supporters to refrain from attacks and violence before or during the 2023 elections.

The House also urged the Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps and other Security Agencies such as the Department of State Services to synergise with the Attorney General of the Federation and the Minster of Justice to identify, investigate, arrest and prosecute the perpetrators behind the attacks.

They also resolved to set up an adhoc committee to investigate the remote and immediate causes of the incessant inferno on INEC offices in different parts of the country.

The resolutions followed the adoption of a motion moved by Hon. Olarewaju Ibrahim Kunle.