We’re after money launderers — INEC

The deployment of anti-graft agencies to track vote buyers and sellers during the governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states is to get money launderers, the Independent National Electoral Commission, has said.

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.

Recall that 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.”