Nigerian Politician Arrested with $500,000 On Election Eve

Sat Feb 25 2023
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Monitoring Desk

 

ISLAMABAD: A Nigerian politician was arrested for allegedly laundering money after $498,100 was recovered from him a day before national elections. Police discovered the piles of US dollars inside Chinyere Igwe’s car. According to police, Igwe, an opposition PDP member of the House of Representatives, was also caught with a list of people to whom the money should be given. 

 

Politicians have previously been accused of rigging elections through vote buying. Nigeria recently introduced new banknotes to make it more difficult for politicians to amass enormous amounts of cash to bribe voters.

 

However, not enough of the new notes have been distributed, causing widespread outrage and frustration. People have been queuing for hours outside banks, often without success, and some have even attacked banks. 40% of Nigerians do not have bank accounts and must rely on cash to buy food and other necessities.

 

Police in Rivers State, where Igwe was detained, urged “all contestants and political groups to strictly comply with provisions of the Electoral Act and other related laws” in a Twitter thread. 

Igwe, who represents a portion of the southern city of Port Harcout, has yet to respond. The elections are expected to be the most competitive since the end of the military regime in 1999, with three candidates – Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, and Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress – all seen as potential winners.

 

The head of the country’s election committee, Inec, told BBC’s Peter Okwoche that the authorities are ready for the vote on Saturday. According to Mahmood Yakubu, reports from across the country indicate that materials are being delivered to local governments as planned.

 

He said that we are exactly where we wanted to be in terms of preparaion, and that security agencies had “assured” Inec that the vote would go off without a hitch.

 

There were fears that the election would be cancelled in parts of the country, dealing with an Islamist insurgency in the north-east, a country-wide kidnapping-for-ransom crisis, and a separatist insurgency in the south-east. Oyibo Chukwu, a senatorial candidate for the opposition Labour Party, was shot dead on Wednesday in south-eastern Enugu State while returning from campaigning.

 

The parliamentary election in Enugu East has been delayed following his killing.

The police have blamed the killings on the separatist group Ipob. The group has yet to respond. To prevent foreign nationals from voting on Saturday, the authorities have shut down all land borders beginning at midnight and lasting 24 hours. Inec announced on Thursday that 87.2 million voter cards had been gathered. 

 

More than 93 million people had registered to cast their votes, which means that six million people had not received their cards and thus would be unable to vote. There have been reports of people being unable to pick up their cards. There was one reported case of voter cards being dumped in a bush only to be discovered by a hunter.

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