Apprehends group sharing rice to eligible voters.
Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in the early hours of yesterday, intercepted a woman with 18 voter cards in a sting operation at Badarwa area of Kaduna, Kaduna State.
The woman, Maryam Mamman Alhaji, who is a member of the support group of one of the leading political parties, also had in her possession, a 17-page list containing names of eligible voters, their bank details and phone numbers as accredited under Badarwa/Malali Ward 01 and 08, Kaduna North Council of Kaduna State.
The Commission said she was nabbed after undercover operatives pretended they had voter cards and were desperate to sell them.
She is currently being grilled by operatives of the Kaduna Zonal Command of the EFCC, with a view to unravelling other members of her syndicate, whom she claimed, are also collecting voters’ cards and paying monies through point of sale (PoS) or direct bank transfers.
The EFCC also arrested a man for alleged vote buying with N194,000 at Gidan Zakka polling unit, Goron Dutse area of Kano Municipal Council.
A party agents buying votes through bank transfers to voters was also arrested in Abaji FCT.
Meanwhile, officials of the EFCC in Katsina State have reportedly apprehended a group of persons sharing bags of rice to voters.
The incident was said to have occurred at the premises of the Katsina Local Government Secretariat, where voters had been mobilised to collect the commodity.
It was learnt that the apprehended persons were giving out the rice on the condition that the beneficiaries would vote for the political party they were representing.
Some of the beneficiaries were said to have been given several measure of the rice in polythene bags, along other inducements, before the EFCC officials arrived at the scene.
A source familiar with the incident said security operatives wearing clothes that had EFCC emblazoned on the back of their shirts, had stormed the secretariat shortly after the rice distribution had begun.
He said they apprehended the people sharing the rice, and allowed people that had gathered to help themselves with the commodity.
He said some of the people that were strong enough, carried as much as two bags or more, while others came with wheelbarrows and went away with several bags of rice.
It was learnt that the secretariat was later put under lock and key, even as the police command in the state was yet to comment on the incident as at time of this report.
Meanwhile, the police have said it had completed investigation into the alleged plan by one of the political parties to hack into the presidential and National Assembly (NASS) portal in the state.
The police had on Friday evening, apprehended 15 people with electronic gadgets, laptop computers and other related equipment, suspected to be intended for hacking the election results portal.
But a statement yesterday issued by the spokesperson for the command, SP Gambo Isah said investigation was carried out with the help of experts familiar with hacking-related matters.
Isah said the investigation later found out that the gadgets were meant to monitor and store information on the elections.
THEGUARDIAN
