BY SEGUN ADEBAYO, ABUJA – The House of Representatives ad hoc Committee on Assessment and Status of all Recovered Loots, Movable and Immovable Assets from 2002 to 2020 has uncovered a mouth watery N360million allegedly doled out as gratification to some staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the 2016 rerun governorship elections in Rivers State.
The Committee established that Governor Nyisome Wike allegedly offered the money as bribe to 23 INEC officials during the exercise for which the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) was able to successfully recover N114million of the money.
These were unraveled at the resumed hearing of the House investigative panel on Tuesday as the representative of the Nigeria Police, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police, Mr Joseph Egbonike was asked questions on recoveries it has made so far during the time under review.
While being cross examined based on the documents submitted by the police on the subject matter, the Committee sought for detail explanation on the alleged N360million recovery funds linked to Governor Nyisom Wike, for which DIG Egbonike said the matter is already before the court and would not be in a position to speak on it.
In his words; “The said matter is still in court and I wouldn’t want to speak much on it, but the said amount you are referring to was recovered from 23 officials of INEC during the 2016 rerun elections of the National and State Assembly which was rigged in favor of PDP.
“Although, the persons involved have been prosecuted and convicted but the matter has been appealed and not yet dispensed”.
The document before the Committee which ws perused through by Forefront News indicate that during the December 10, 2016, National and State Assembly rerun elections in Rivers State, efforts were made induce, bribe and intimidate electoral officials deployed to Rivers State from Anambra, Oyo and Plateau States with a view to compromise and influence the outcome of the election. Continuing, the DIG said that on receipt of the intelligence, the police investigation team under the IGP Monitoring Unit was set up, following which about N114.3 million was recovered from the 23 INEC officials and deposited at the Central Bank of Nigeria with “Account Name: IGP Special Joint Investigation Panel on Rivers Re-run Election of 10/12/2016 with Remita Retrieval Reference number 3401-58076328.
“Details of payment and breakdown of the recovery are attached here, Appendix ‘C&C1-Summary of recovery from 23 INEC Officials C2-Payment slips into CBN Account Zenith Bank with Remita Retrie reference number 3401-5807-6328.
“All suspects are being prosecuted before the Federal high Court, Port Harcourt, River State by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Federation,” DIG Egbonike said.
