The All Progressives Congress (APC) which is currently in power in Kwara State, has come under fire from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for allegedly moving large sums of money from public accounts into private accounts for later distribution to influence voters in the governor and house of assembly elections.
At a news conference in Ilorin on Thursday, Professor Ali Ahmad, Director-General of the PDP’s Governorship Campaign Committee in Kwara, made the charge.
He said, “We have correct and factual information about how political office holders, private individuals outside government, influential people in our society and even bureaucrats receive huge money from government accounts and these individuals then either retain the money as their own to buy their support while some others are charged with paying a huge part of the money in tranches of N20,000, N30,000 and N10,000 to ordinary voters. This is a big political scam that is going on in our state.”
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The APC government in the state, according to Professor Ali, has also ensured that there is a severe lack of cash, forcing those participating in the scheme to do their illicit business through banks.
“This means there is a clear paper trail. The transactions can be traced, tracked, and trailed. Even those who design the idea of using payment wallets on some special platforms still leave a trail,” he added.
The DG reminded the people involved in the alleged scam to know that what they are doing amounts to diverting Kwara State government money to fund political and partisan activities.
“They should know that when they hide, their backside is there in the open. All the things they are doing are being tracked.
“Let us remind them that what they are doing is misappropriation, misuse, misallocation, and diversion of public funds. This is a big crime that our laws frown at and those involved in it will one day pay for their crimes against our people.
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“We want to warn all the individuals whose bank accounts the money is diverted to for their personal use or for subsequent piecemeal distribution to know that one day they will be held to account for their role.
“The evidence of their transactions, infractions, and conspiracy to misuse public funds will be garnered and presented before the law to take its natural course,” he further stated.
He said for the avoidance of doubt, the Electoral Act has criminalised this old practice of voter inducement. It provides in Section 121 that whoever directly or indirectly by himself or his behalf, “corruptly makes any gift, loan, offer, promise, procurement or agreement to or for any person, in order to induce such person” person to vote at any election as committed an offence liable on conviction to 12 months imprisonment.
“We want to believe the EFCC is aware of this development but we have equally instructed our legal department to formally notify them and other relevant anti-graft agencies.”