Ahead of the forthcoming governorship election in Edo State, the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede has warned voters against getting involved in vote buying and selling.
Olukoyede stated this during a Town Hall meeting on voter’s sensitization towards the forthcoming election in Ekpoma, Esan West Local government and at the Famcoop Hall, University of Benin, Benin City.
The chairman represented by Assistant Commander of the EFCC ACE1 Williams Oseghale, Head, Public Affairs Department, Benin Zonal Command stated that vote buying and selling were criminal offences as enshrined in the Electoral Act. He charged those participants at the meeting to take the message to their friends, brothers, sisters, and colleagues “as ignorance is not an excuse in law. That I don’t know is not an excuse. The law is against it. So stay away from it.”
Citing the Electoral Act, he stated that any person who “buys or offers to buy any voters’ card whether on his own behalf or on behalf of any other person, commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction, to a fine not exceeding N500,000 or imprisonment not exceeding two years or both”
The commission also aired a recorded interview by the Acting Zonal Director, ACE I Effa I. Okim, previously aired on the EFCC television programme, the Eagle on Television on the consequences of vote buying.
Ochre Eden Precious, Executive Director, YES Project Initiatives who facilitated the programme said the essence of the Town Hall meeting was to inspire youths to discharge their civil responsibilities by registering and casting their votes and to discourage vote buying and selling during the governorship election.
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