The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. AbudulRasheed Bawa, yesterday disclosed that over N500 billion of the old N500 and N1,000 banknotes were yet to be returned to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in line with the apex bank’s directive following the naira redesign project.
Bawa,who disclosed this during a programme monitored on Channels Television on Wednesday,said a hugechunk of the N500 billion of the new N200, N500 and N1,000 banknotes in circulation were being hoarded allegedly for vote-buying in the general elections which commences this Saturday with the presidential and National Assembly polls.
He warned that all machineries have been put in place to drastically reduce the influence of vote buying in the election.
Bawa expressed confidence that the agency would record more success compared to the recent Ekiti and Osun governorship polls because of the naira redesign policy.
He added:“As you know we have new currency in circulation, it is easier to track this new currency by their numbers, the CBN knows the serial numbers of these currencies as they distributed them across the country.
“So we even have another added responsibility because all the funds that we will eventually recover out there in the field that would be used for buying of votes; we can actually check and see whether they are genuine currencies that are gotten from ATMs and across the counter or somebody somewhere gave them in bulk and gave politicians the money”.
He disclosed that some bankers had been suspected of sabotaging the equitable distribution of the new notes.
He disclosed that no arrest had been made since October, when the policy started because the federal government does not want to create chaos and raise tension, the commission chairman, assured that after the elections a lot of people who had deposited very huge sums would certainly have answers to provide to the agency.
He promised that the EFCC would do everything to ensure that “dirty money does not find its way into the electoral process,” by stopping all those who wants to buy votes from doing so.
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He implored all Nigerians to buy into the fight if the country must get rid of corruption which is the cause of the insecurity and economic woes facing the country.
He urged all Nigerians to download the EFCC’s app through which the can upload pictures and videos of vote buying during the election.
He also assured that all those caught would be brought to book as the commission has already gotten the fiat to prosecute vote buyers as well as sellers.