{"id":125815,"date":"2026-02-23T07:46:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T06:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=125815"},"modified":"2026-02-23T07:46:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T06:46:22","slug":"efcc-nabs-20-over-alleged-vote-buying-in-fct-council-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/efcc-nabs-20-over-alleged-vote-buying-in-fct-council-polls\/","title":{"rendered":"EFCC Nabs 20 Over Alleged Vote Buying in FCT Council Polls"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"m#msg-f:1857865748371949075\" class=\"mail-message expanded\">\n<div id=\"m#msg-f:1857865748371949075-header\" class=\"mail-message-header spacer\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">By Lizzy Chirkpi<\/div>\n<div id=\"m#msg-f:1857865748371949075-content\" class=\"mail-message-content collapsible zoom-normal mail-show-images \">\n<div class=\"clear\">\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested 20 individuals over alleged electoral fraud during the just-concluded Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Commander noted that it carried out the arrest on Saturday, February 21, 2026, the anti-graft agency said its operatives apprehended the suspects across various parts of the FCT for offences including vote buying, vote selling and obstruction of electoral officials.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the Head of Media and Publicity, EFCC, Dele Oyewale, the arrests were carried out on Saturday, February 21, 2026, across various area councils in the FCT.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Oyewale in a statement issued on Sunday said the suspects were apprehended for offences ranging from vote buying and vote selling to obstruction of electoral officers.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the Commission, a total of \u20a617,218,700 was recovered from the suspects.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cOne of the suspects was arrested with the sum of \u20a613,500,000 in a vehicle parked beside a polling unit in Kwali Area Council,\u201d the EFCC disclosed.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The arrests were spread across the councils, with two suspects picked up in Abaji, nine in Gwagwalada, four in Kuje and another four in Kwali.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Commission stated that investigations are ongoing and assured that the suspects would be prosecuted.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe suspects will be charged to court upon the conclusion of investigations,\u201d the statement added.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The FCT Area Council elections were held on Saturday amid tight security and monitoring by anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies following concerns over vote trading and electoral malpractice in previous polls.<\/div>\n<div id=\"m_-3945738807978356643ymail_android_signature\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Lizzy Chirkpi The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested 20 individuals over alleged electoral fraud during the just-concluded Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections. The Commander&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>EFCC Nabs 20 Over Alleged Vote Buying in FCT Council Polls - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/efcc-nabs-20-over-alleged-vote-buying-in-fct-council-polls\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EFCC Nabs 20 Over Alleged Vote Buying in FCT Council Polls - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Lizzy Chirkpi The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested 20 individuals over alleged electoral fraud during the just-concluded Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections. 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