The arrest of two officials of the Fidelity Bank by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), is ruffling feathers in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The officials of the bank, the Managing Director/the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo, and the Head of Operations, Martins Izuogbe, were arrested in connection with $115 million allegedly lodged in the bank by former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke. The anti-corruption agency had said the money was meant for disbursement to officials of INEC in 36 states of the federation to influence the 2015 general elections.
“There is panic in the party. The party collected N200 million from the account for campaign,” he disclosed. The EFCC also said the arrested bank officials had made statements, including the list of all beneficiaries and details of payment made to them.
Like the case of the money allegedly paid from the office of the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), the EFCC might use the list to close in on alleged beneficiaries of the money. Although the INEC headquarters in Abuja denied knowledge of the alleged transaction between the bank and officials of the commission, the EFCC said it … N408. 7 million out of the $115 million. “Some former and serving INEC officials in Oyo and Ogun have paid back N359million to EFCC.
What happened was that while N802m was voted for bribery of INEC officials and NGOs in Oyo State to change presidential poll results, about N629m was dished out in Ogun State,” an official of the commission was quoted to have said.Meanwhile, officials of the INEC and the PDP in Ogun and Delta states have denied collecting N629million to alter the results of the last presidential election. In separate interviews with our correspondent, both INEC and PDP described media report that they got bribe to change election result as ‘unfounded’.
A newspaper report had indicated that some former and serving INEC officials in Ogun and Oyo states got N629million and N802million respectively out of the N23.3billion allegedly contributed by some oil barons to change results of the 2015 presidential election. The report added that some former and serving officials of INEC have refunded N359million out of the bribe. But speaking in a telephone interview with our correspondent, the state Public Affairs Officer of INEC, Mr. Olayinka Ogunseye, said the alleged disbursement of bribe was not true. “It can only be a lie. If anybody has proof, let them come up with it. There is no truth in that report.
It is just a figment of their imagination,” he declared. Ogunseye said he was unaware that some former and serving INEC officials in the state refunded part of the cash upon grilling by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
“That (refund of bribe) is news to me. I’ve not heard anything like that. But I think it is far from the truth,” he added. Also speaking, the PDP State Secretary, Alhaji Semiu Sodipo, faulted the report that his party offered N629million to electoral officers to change election results.
Sodipo described the report as a blatant lie and cheap blackmail. He said: “It is far from the truth. We went to the election, we contested and after that, we went to the tribunal up to the Appeal Court and Supreme Court. We lost at the court and we accepted our fate.
We are preparing for the next election. “Nobody from our party collected any money to manoeuvre the elections. If the then national chairman did not go to Bauchi where he came from to alter election and the party secretary did not go to Osun to change result, how can they be involved in changing election result in Ogun?” In the same vein, the Delta State Public Relations Officer of INEC, Mr. James Popoola, said he was not aware of any such inducement.
