Group of concerned Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, working to promote the credibility of the electoral process in the state, has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over an alleged plan by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje to engage in vote-buying during the March 23 rerun election in the state.
The group, under the aegis of the Kano State Civil Society Situation Room on the 2019 Gubernatorial Election, in a letter dated Wednesday, March 14 and sent to DAILY NIGERIAN, drew the attention of the EFCC to a suspicious withdrawal of N223,500,000 from Kano state government treasury, through the Ministry for Local Governments.
The group, therefore, called on the anti-graft agency to swiftly initiate measures with a view to discouraging vote buying before and during the rerun elections.
The letter reads:
PETITION AGAINST KANO STATE GOVERNMENT OVER ATTEMPT TO BUY VOTES AHEAD OF THE 23RD MARCH, 2019 RE-RUN GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION IN KANO STATE.
The Kano State Civil Society Situation Room on the 2019 Gubernatorial Election is a group of concerned CSOs working to promote the credibility of the electoral process in Kano State and Nigeria at large. The group is aware of the effort your commission is putting to curb the menace of vote buying, especially by encouraging Nigerians to report incidents of votes buying to your commission, either through the already shared phone numbers or through other means.
It is in recognition of EFCC’s commitment to curb this menace that we wish to draw your attention to a suspicious withdrawal of Two Hundred and Twenty Three Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira Only (N223,500,000), from Kano state government treasury, through the Ministry for Local Governments. The said amount has been allocated to different Local Governments where INEC scheduled to hold re-run election on 23/03/2019, in Kano State. This information is contained in a leaked document dated 12/03/2019 that is now available in the public domain. Furthermore, on the 13th March, 2019, arrests of some votes buying agents have been made in some communities where Gubernatorial re-run election will take place, and some of those agents confirmed that they were working for the ruling APC in the state, as one of them confirmed on Freedom Radio program, (Inda Ranka), on Wednesday 13/03/2019 by 9:41pm.
We hope that EFCC will investigate this matter, while also putting some measures in those communities to ensure that votes buying, both before and during, does not influence the Gubernatorial re-run election in Kano State.
Attached to this petition are copies of the leaked documents directing for the withdrawal of the said amount and the list of the benefiting Local Governments, for your investigation.
While we commend you for the anticipated front response, we wish to assure you of our commitment to continue supporting the efforts of your commission to curb votes buying and any other form of corruption in Kano State and Nigeria at large.
Yours Sincerely,
Comrade Kabiru Saidu Dakata,
Co-Convener,
Comrade Abdulrazaq Alkai,
Co-Convener,
For: other members
