2023: Every Candidate must declare Bank Assets, Says INEC

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Yakubu Mahmood has declared that every candidate running in the general elections in 2023 would be required to submit their bank statements for inspection.

Speaking at a high-level policy discussion on political campaign finance held in Abuja on Friday, Mahmood who was represented by Kunle Ajayi, INEC’s national commissioner, threatened to penalize banks for failing to disclose suspicious transactions involving politicians during election campaigns.

“We have not officially declared a notice for the 2023 general elections, but when we do 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,” he said.

“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.

“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.”

Yakubu stated that INEC would establish finance monitoring teams to monitor politicians in order to curb excessive electoral funding.

He added that money politics, undue influence of money, marginalisation, particularly of women and youths and other vulnerable members of the electorates, are hampering participation.