Ilorin, June 11, 2026 – Ola Olukoyede, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has alleged that some governorship aspirants spent between N20 billion and N30 billion to win in the last primary elections.
He made the allegation on Wednesday while speaking at a public lecture organised by the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies (CPSS) at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State.
The theme of the lecture was “De-risking and Mobilising Critical Stakeholders for Peaceful and Credible 2027 Elections in Nigeria”.
Olukayode said that huge financial resources deployed in elections often compel elected officials to divert public funds in the bid to recoup their investments
“If you spend that kind of money to get to an office, of course, everybody sees it as an investment, and that’s why we are here, to see what we can do to sanitise our electoral process and ensure that the process is not contaminated.
“Sometime late last year, we took an assessment of how much a contestant for the office of a governor in Nigeria spends in the build-up to the election, during the primaries, during the election itself, and post-election tribunal issues and all of that, and we saw it to be between N20 billion and N30 billion.
“If you spend that kind of money to get to an office, of course, everybody sees it as an investment, and that’s why we are here, to see what we can do to sanitise our electoral process and ensure that the process is not contaminated.
“When the process is contaminated, you get contaminated leaders,” he said.
The EFCC boss said this trend posed serious threat to democratic governance as it fuels corruption in public office.
He said the EFCC was committed to tackling all forms of financial inducements during election which, he said, had undermined the integrity of Nigeria’s electoral process.
“The commercialisation of votes weakens the foundation of good governance because it compromises the political recruitment process.
“Leaders who buy their way into office are more likely to focus on recovering their investments rather than serving the public interest,” he said.
Olukayode said the EFCC had made several arrests across the country over vote-buying and related electoral offences, and recorded some convictions.
He said those prosecuted include politicians, electoral officials and ordinary citizens found culpable of electoral misconduct.
The EFCC chairman said the commission planned to deploy drones and other technological tools to strengthen election monitoring in the 2027 general elections, particularly to track vote-buying and financial inducements at polling units.
