The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared every candidate contesting in the 2023 general elections will need to present bank statements for scrutiny.
INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, represented by Kunle Ajayi, INEC’s national commissioner, made this known at a high-level policy roundtable on political campaign finance on Friday in Abuja.
According to him: “We have not officially declared a notice for the 2023 general elections, but when we so declare, we will put our monitoring committees to motion like the central banks, the DSS, the EFCC, the ICPC, the (commercial) banks and other law enforcement agencies,”
“Every candidate must declare bank asset because that is where they draw out their money, so we will make them to present their statements of account right from the onset.
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“We will make it mandatory for them to turn in their bank statements so if they say they are doing billboards and the account remains the same, then there is a problem.”
The chairman said the electoral umpire would establish finance monitoring teams to monitor politicians to curb excessive electoral funding.
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He added: “These groups ordinarily would want to participate in the electoral process, but because of economic reasons, many of them cannot participate,”
“So they have decided to leave it to the money bags, those who have enough money to manipulate the system for campaign and so on.
“These have become concerns to INEC, and we will be working to curb it, using the law that empowers INEC, so I am glad this meeting is holding.
“We look forward to more recommendations on how we can provide solutions to issues bothering on elections, like vote-buying, issues of money bags, godfathers and how to provide a level-playing ground for everybody.”
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