The ruling All Progressives Congress in Kwara State has been accused of reportedly shifting large sums of money from government accounts into private bank accounts for later disturbution in order to induce voters in the gubernatorial and house of assembly elections.
Professor Ali Ahmad, Director-General of the Party’s Governorship Campaign Committee in Kwara, made the claim at a news conference in Ilorin on Thursday.
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.”
Professor Ali said the new financial regime being promoted by the APC government in the state has also ensured there is an acute scarcity of cash and so the people involved in this scam are being forced to transact this fraudulent business using the 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.
“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.
According to the Professor of Law, “What the unscrupulous individuals are doing constitutes the greatest danger to our democracy. They are simply undermining democracy, polluting the political process, corrupting the system, and rigging the votes. They are all threats to democracy and the people should see them in this light.
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.”
The DG appealed to the good people of Kwara State to accept the token they are given and vote the APC government out.
“Vote for a party that has proved itself over the years to know how to bring genuine development to our state, our people, and our future – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Vote for Alhaji Shuaib Yaman Abdullahi,” he further appealed.