A Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Gesila Khan and four others, have been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for allegedly receiving N651 million bribe during the 2015 polls.
Sensitive election materials for the 2015 presidential and senatorial polls were also retrieved from the residences of some of the suspects, as well as many documents on financial and landed properties, The Nation reports.
The suspects allegedly committed the poll bribery fraud in Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River states.
Khan, who was the REC in Rivers State during the last general election, allegedly got N185, 842, 000 out of the bribe sum under probe by the EFCC.
The other suspects involved in the bribery scandal include Fidelia Omoile (Electoral Officer in Isoko-South Local Government Area of Delta State)–N112,480,000; Uluochi Obi Brown (INEC’s Administrative Secretary in Delta State)–N111,500,000; a former Deputy Director of INEC in Cross River state, Edem Okon Effanga—N241,127,000 and the Head of Voter Education in INEC in Akwa Ibom, Immaculata Asuquo–N214,127,000.
A top source told the newspaper that: “During the preliminary grilling of Khan, she admitted that she went to a bank to identify one Peter Popnen (who is on the run) to collect N185, 842,000.
“We have launched a manhunt for Popnen to ascertain how the deal was struck. As for Fideli Omoile, we discovered that her signature and driver’s license were allegedly used for some of the N112.48m transactions.
“Regarding Uluochi, investigation confirmed that she had $75, 857 in her account with the Bank of America as at February. This indicated that she laundered some of the N111.5m poll bribery cash abroad.
“In any case, EFCC is quizzing her on why she is operating a foreign account in violation of the Code of Conduct Act.”
Another source in the commission said those who benefitted from the scandal appeared to be many.
“On his part, Effanga told interrogators that although he cashed the N241,127,000 at a branch of Fidelity Bank in Calabar, he only got $290,000 as his share.
“But from his testimony, many INEC staff and Ad hoc workers benefitted from the loot. We are probing the sources of these slush funds which were deployed in some of these states to bribe INEC staff. Certainly, we are looking into many accounts which were used by some INEC staff.
“On Immaculata Asuquo, she said she was directed by the REC in Akwa Ibom to go and identify Effanga in order to cash the N241,127,000.”
“EFCC may have no choice than to approach a court for a warrant to detain them.
“I think we may go to court on Monday accordingly.”
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