According to a news that was published by the Premium Times Newspaper online this morning, it was reported that a top Nigerian politician, Ladi Adebutu, who claimed last week that he had fled Nigeria over threats to his life, has been indicted by the Nigeria Police Force for money laundering, and vote-buying during the last gubernatorial election in Ogun State.
It was reported that the Police said that, Mr Adebutu, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State, deployed two billion naira to induce voters across the state to vote for him, and his party during the 18th March election. And according to an interim report, Celestina Appeal, who happens to be the Head of Card Services, at Zenith Bank, told some investigators that, Adebutu, who had been a customer of the bank since year 2009, approached the bank in the month of February 2023 to produce thousands of ATM cards for him.
He said, "Before the election, Adebutu told us to produce 200,000 ATM cards and we should put N10,000 each. Adebutu told us his family planned to do an endowment scheme in the form of prepaid cards in commemoration of their late matriarch Dame Caroline Oladunni Adebutu. He requested for 200,000 prepaid Verve ATM cards, which the bank produced."
Further talking, he explained that, each of the card was loaded with the sum of N10,000, summing up to N2 billion in total, with the fund drawn from Adebutu’s account with the bank.
An investigator involved in the case said, "Mr Adebutu ordered the cards on 27th February, 2023, and they were loaded with cash credit on 16th and 17th of March, 2023 ahead of the 18th March governorship election in which he was a candidate."
Further talking, he said it was pertinent to note that the cards, were specifically loaded two days to the governorship election on 18th March 2023, and on the eve of the election. Also considering that these ATM cards were distributed on elections day, it is safe to infer that the purpose of the prepaid cards was for vote buying."
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