Following reports that some Resident Electoral Commissioners and other officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, received millions of naira in bribes before the 2015 general elections, chairman of the commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has appealed to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to fish out bribe takers in the commission.
He called on the anti-graft agency to equally move against those who offered bribes to the workers of the commission, assuring that INEC would cooperate with the EFCC in sanitising the system following the recent bribery allegations against some staff of the commission.
The latest edition of INEC’s bulletin issued on Monday reports that the chairman made this call at a meeting with some journalists in Lagos, where he promised that the commission would not cover up anyone found culpable in the bribe saga.
Yakubu, who stressed that his commission would work with the EFCC to punish the affected officers, said: “Whatever level of cooperation any of the agencies requires of the commission, we will give that level of cooperation because it is also in a bid to sanitise the system.
“I hope also it will extend to the givers not just the takers so that there will be collective sanity.
“Whoever violates the law of this land and there are questions to answer, the person should answer, the person should bear his own cross.”
Expressing delight that the bribery issue did not affect the commission as an institution, the INEC boss said, “All the staff that are fingered are individuals. It is not a collective institutional thing.
“They should go and answer for what they have alleged to have done.”
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