The Independent National Electoral Commission announced on Friday that in the 2023 general election, it will shine a spotlight on politicians and political parties to identify the sources of financing for their campaigns.

As a result, the commission committed to forming a committee to oversee election spending before the elections.

The Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, stated this in Abuja during a policy roundtable conference on political campaign finance organized by The Electoral Forum, an organ of the Initiative for Research, Innovation, and Advocacy in Development with support from the MacArthur Foundation, and represented by a National Commissioner, Kunle Ajayi.

He said, “As long as we have not notified anybody that the race to the 2023 general election has started, we are not unaware of what anybody is doing. We follow the law strictly.

“We have not officially declared a notice for the 2023 general election, but when we so declare, we will put our monitoring committees to motion like the Central Bank of Nigeria, DSS, EFCC, the ICPC, (commercial) banks, and other law enforcement agencies. We have that plan already.

“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 billboard and the account remains the same, then there is a problem,” he said.

The INEC chairman also said that INEC would also monitor the movement of money on election days to help tackle vote-buying at polling units.

Mahmood said that through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, 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.

Speaking on the issue of vote-buying, Mahmood said, “We are going to establish finance monitoring teams and they will be among the electorate but they (politicians and political parties) won’t know.

“We are going to do it in a way that the influence of money will be reduced because we want to make the electoral field a level playing ground for both rich and poor candidates and electorates. Everybody will go on an equal economic level so that you won’t influence the voting pattern,” he added.

He spoke on Thursday in Makurdi, the State capital, while assenting to the amended Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law 2017. The Governor warned that the presidential aspirant would fail in his ambition if he opts to pursue Buhari’s policies.

According to Ortom: “I heard about one of the presidential aspirants who said he would continue from Buhari’s good legacies. I want to tell him that if nobody has told him, me I want to tell him that Buhari’s policies and programs are not good.”

“And anybody who is saying that, some of us in our own little way, we will fight him and tell our people to vote against him. So, he has failed abinitio.”

President Muhammadu Buhari has urged Nigerians to be objective in evaluating his campaign pledges ahead of the 2019 elections.

Buhari stated that his administration was doing all possible to leave a Nigeria that was better than the one he inherited.

Speaking at Kafanchan as part of his two-day visit to Kaduna to commission projects overseen by Governor El-Rufai, he urged Nigerians to be objective in their assessments of his government’s achievements thus far.

While visiting the Emir of Jema’a Alhaji Muhammadu Isa’s palace in Kafanchan, President Buhari stated that his administration was committed to implementing programs that would enhance people’s lives.

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He enjoined Nigerians to have confidence in the ability of the security agents to curb security challenges bedeviling the country and restore normalcy in the system. President Muhammadu Buhari said he was against anybody raising an army of thugs.

He emphasized, “This must be very clear.” In his remarks, Governor Nasir El-Rufai observed that President Buhari has done so well on security in the country. Governor El-Rufai added that Buhari’s investment since he assumed office on security has lessened attacks.

According to Governor El-Rufai, Kafanchan has become much safer than it used to be. Alhaji Muhammadu Isa, the Emir of Jema’a appealed for the establishment of a permanent base of Air Force and Mobile Police in the area.

He also requested the restoration of the rail transport from Kafanchan to other parts of the country.