The Director of Voter Education and Publicity of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, has explained that the administrative panel set up by the commission to investigate and report on the conduct of the last rerun elections in Rivers state did not contact the state government in the course of its investigation because the mandate of the panel does not include the jurisdiction to investigate criminal offences.
He said this in Abuja during a chat with the media following allegation by Governor Nyesom Wike, that the government was not contacted to give its own side of the story in the course of both the police and the commission’s investigations.
Osaze-Uzzi said that the police had the jurisdiction to investigate criminal offences, therefore, was in a better position to have reached out to Rivers state government for certain facts.
He said that the reports from INEC and the police had points of agreement and disagreement. The commission’s spokesman observed that allegations of taking money and certain conducts which were unprofessional; which amounted to negligence and misconduct, were the areas the commission’s report had common standing with the police report.
He further said that the commission’s report didn’t necessarily tally with the police’s report in the sense that some of the allegations were criminal while others were not criminal.
Osaze-Uzzi said that as far as the commission was concerned, Rivers state government was not involved in the bribery allegations stressing that individuals acting for other individuals or the government were indicted but that it was left for the courts to determine which party the individuals were acting for.
He said: “To the best of my knowledge, we did not make contact with the government of Rivers state in the course of our report. You have to look at the terms of reference of that administrative panel of enquiry. INEC does not have the jurisdiction to investigate criminal offences. That is left to the police. That, I presume, is what the police did.
“Don’t forget that Rivers state has its own panel of judicial enquiry into certain circumstances, I guess within their own jurisdiction as well. So, each arm of government; each body investigates things that deal with matters within its own purview.
“There are different angles to this. First of all, I am not too sure that the police report said the government of Rivers state tried to manipulate INEC electoral officers through bribery. Individuals, whether they are acting on behalf of other individuals or government, I would not know. But individuals did certain things.
“But for our own administrative panel of enquiry, the issue of bribery was not of much concern to us. If, for example, I ask some people did you take money from a certain man, and he says ‘Yes!’; there is no need for me to go out and ask that man did you give money to these people.
“The bribery allegation is between the Rivers state government and the police. INEC did not get the police report until last Wednesday after the submission of the report of INEC administrative panel.
“We did not do investigation into criminal allegation. We carried out an administrative panel. The INEC report was that of an administrative panel of enquiry.
“There are areas of common standing with the police and areas of differences as well. There were allegations of taking money but apart from that, there were certain conducts which were unprofessional; which amounted to negligence; which amounted to misconduct, and that put a lot of administrative breaches. Gross misconduct is a very serious offence under our terms of engagement with the commission and the staff.
“They don’t necessarily tally with the police in the sense that some of the allegations are not criminal while others are not criminal.
“As for the criminal aspects of the report, the police have done their own bit, and if they want to, they could still take it further. As for the administrative aspect, our INEC panel has done its own bit as well and has indicted some people.”
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