Polls: EFCC lays ambush for hard currencies in major border towns

TRACKING>>ABUJA—Apparently acting on intelligence that some politicians have resorted to ferrying hard currencies into the country to compromise this weekend’s presidential poll, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has deployed its operatives to lay ambush for such slush cash and promptly arrest the couriers.

The anti-graft agency, Vanguard learned, moved its crack operatives to key border towns in Nigeria to apprehend the cash couriers following credible information that some politicians had resorted to using land borders to ferry in millions of hard currency for vote-buying, having been blocked through the banking system and Bureaux de Change, BDCs.

Vanguard learned that a crack team raised by EFCC to frisk BDC dealers and outlets in Kano, Sokoto, Jigawa, Taraba, Borno, Bauchi, Lagos and Cross River states had already moved into the affected states and were currently mixing freely with the dealers with a view to picking the couriers for prosecution against money laundering.

It was further gathered that the anti-graft agency was also trailing those who had ferried fake US dollars across Nigeria’s borders to hoodwink and lure unsuspecting Nigerian voters to vote for a particular candidate because of the huge sums promised them.

INEC’s readiness for credible elections doubtful- EPF

Voodoo currency in circulation

An EFCC top official, who pleaded anonymity, said, yesterday: “The tragedy of the situation is that the so-called hard currency is fake and we are trailing those who ferried it into the country with a view to bringing them to justice.

“These people, who are also into some form of magic, are believed to have used some form of spell to deceive their victims to accept the hard currency as original and vote for a preferred candidate but they would only come to their senses after the elections.

Meanwhile, acting EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, had earlier in the day raised the alarm over the circulation of fake dollars in the country.

In a statement, Magu said the agency alerted Nigerians following intelligence gathered in the build up to the elections.

“The intelligence indicates that the dollar notes have features of genuineness, but forensic analysis by the commission reveals otherwise. We, therefore, warn the BDC operators to be cautious in their transactions from now till the end of the elections,” he said.