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By Myke Agunwa
Vote buying and other electoral malfeasance have continued to contaminate the electoral process, as security operatives at a hotel in Iperu-Remo, Ogun State on Saturday, arrested two persons suspected to be staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over attempts to compromise the ongoing Bye-Elections in some parts of the country.
They also picked up a party agent identified as Shehu Aliyu Patangi at about 3:30AM at a hotel along Turunku Road in Kaduna metropolis with N25.9 million cash.
Pointblanknews.com learnt that the two INEC staff, whose names were not mentioned as at the time of filling this report, were arrested alongside a politician who was allegedly planning to induce the staff with a huge sum of money.
The suspects were arrested at a hotel in Iperu-Remo, Ikenne Local Government Area on Saturday.
In a viral video circulating online, the INEC officials, a man and a woman, were seen squatting while being questioned by security agents.
The officer interrogating them said intelligence showed that the INEC staff had earlier been contacted and given a large sum of money by the party officials for vote buying during the bye-election.
Efforts to reach the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Kayode Olukanmi to confirm the identity of the staff were unsuccessful as his number was not available.
Similarly, The Kaduna police command announced that its operatives have arrested a man with N25.9 million cash allegedly set aside for vote-buying in the state’s bye-election.
In a statement on Saturday, spokesperson for the police command in Kaduna, Mansir Hassan said the arrest was made in collaboration with the Department of State Services (DSS).
He said cash totaling N25,963,000, believed to used to induce voters during the polls was recovered from Patangi.
The statement reads, “At about 0330hrs today, we arrested one Shehu Aliyu Patangi at a popular hotel located along Turunku Road in Kaduna metropolis,” the statement reads.
“We recovered a total cash sum of twenty-five million, nine hundred and sixty-three thousand naira (₦25,963,000) from the suspect; the money is believed to have been earmarked for inducing voters to compromise the electoral process.”
“Preliminary investigations revealed that the suspect had planned to use the said amount to bribe eligible voters.
“On interrogation, the suspect confessed to the crime and pleaded for leniency.”
According to the statement, the Commissioner of police in Kaduna, Rabiu Muhammad commended the DSS for the synergy and quick intervention that led to the arrest.
Muhammad warned that anyone who attempts to undermine the electoral process, “regardless of status”, would face the full weight of the law.
The bye election is holding in 16 federal and state constituencies, as well as senatorial districts, across 12 states of the federation.