The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), on Friday, said it would beam its searchlight on politicians and political parties to track the sources of funds for their campaigns in the 2023 general election.
The Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, represented by a National Commissioner, Kunle Ajayi, stated this in Abuja during a policy roundtable conference on political campaign finance organised by The Electoral Forum, an organ of the Initiative for Research, Innovation and Advocacy in Development, with support from the MacArthur Foundation.
The Commission, therefore, promised to set up a committee to monitor election expenditure ahead of the elections.
According to him, “Every candidate must be made to declare his bank asset. That is where they draw out their money, so we will make them present their statement of account right from the onset.
We will make it mandatory for them to turn in their bank statement, so that if they say they are doing a billboard and the account remains the same, then there is a problem, he stated.
The INEC chairman also said that the Commission would also monitor the movement of money on election days, in order to help tackle vote-buying at polling units.
Mahmood said that through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), commercial banks would be mandated to report all suspicious transactions ahead of the election.
The INEC chairman also threatened to prosecute any bank that failed to cooperate.
