Amid alleged irregularities, INEC says EFCC gave credibility to 2019 elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that the involvement of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in poll monitoring, gave credibility to the 2019 general elections.

The commission applauded the anti-graft agency’s monitoring of the elections across the country to prevent compromises through vote buying and selling.

A statement posted on the EFCC website on Tuesday, quoted the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Oyo State, Mutiu Agboke, as making the remark in Ibadan on Monday during a thank-you visit to the Ibadan zonal office of the commission.

Agboke reportedly said, “Your intervention in the 2019 elections is not something that can be wished away. In fact, it gave credibility to the conduct of the elections. I was monitoring the analysis of the elections on the radio one day when somebody said he saw for the first time EFCC men around Oluyole area and Ibarapa axis.

“The point I am making here is that even while you were waging the war against vote buying on one hand, we were still able to see in you an agency of government trying to checkmate vote compromises in other forms. That actually made the elections to be acceptable.

“Apart from playing laudable roles during the buildup to the elections, throughout the exercise you were there. Your own computation during the collation was even more superb than what we were doing with the excel. I discovered that each time we were showing the results, you were the one telling me the margin between all of those figures. It is a commitment. It is not just because you are doing an official duty. It is a support. We thank you very sincerely. We thank all your personnel.”

Agboke, was said, to have also thanked the acting chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, for agreeing to work with the electoral body to help discharge its duties to the satisfaction of most Nigerians.

Many internal and local election observers had claimed that the 2019 general elections, across the country, were marred by violence, ballot box snatching and other irregularities.