PORT HARCOURT: Police in Nigeria’s southern Rivers State on Friday arrested an opposition party lawmaker with almost half a million dollars in cash “for distribution” just hours before polls opened.

Nearly 90 million people are eligible to vote on Saturday for a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari, who is stepping down after two terms and leaving the country grappling with a security crisis and a sluggish economy.

The race is expected to be tight between the three frontrunners: Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the main opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and outsider Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP).

In oil-rich Rivers State, police said that during a stop and search operation it had arrested a lawmaker with a bag of cash it suspected was for buying votes.

“Police officers from Rivers State command... arrested one honorable Chinyere Igwe, member (of the) House of Representatives with a cash sum of 498,100 USD inside a bag,” police spokeswoman Grace Iringe-Koko said.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2023