N23bn Diezani bribe: 100 INEC staff face suspension

The Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee is about to droop one hundred of its officers this month over varied quantities of cash they allegedly collected from the N23bn bribe fund facilitated by a former Minister of Petroleum Sources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, forward of the 2015 basic elections.

INEC confirmed to The us on Tuesday that it had acquired a report on the indicted workers from the investigations carried out by the Financial and Monetary Crimes Fee.

It was learnt that the electoral umpire had began reviewing the report and that these indicted within the report would go on suspension.

A supply in INEC said that these discovered culpable would obtain their letters of suspension earlier than the tip of January.

A nationwide commissioner, who confided in us, mentioned, “We’re engaged on the report submitted by the EFCC and earlier than the tip of the month, these concerned would go on suspension.”

We had a couple of months in the past, reported that the fee had barred the indicted officers from collaborating within the Edo and Ondo states governorship elections in addition to the Rivers State rerun polls.

The Deputy Director accountable for Voter Schooling and Publicity, Mr. Nick Dazang, in a phone interview with one in every of our correspondents on Tuesday, confirmed that INEC had obtained the report on the indicted officers from the EFCC.

He said that the fee would apply its circumstances of service to the indicted employees.

Dazang defined that it was the accountability of the indicted personnel to show their innocence earlier than the suspension may very well be lifted.

He stated, “The place of the fee is that we’ll apply the provisions of the INEC situations of service that are the identical as the general public service guidelines as they apply to those that are indicted.

“We are going to apply INEC’s situations of service. There’s a situation of service which INEC has, which pulls from the general public service guidelines. When a member of employees is indicted, then the principles apply; which signifies that he would now be on suspension.

“When he’s positioned on suspension, he has to show his innocence. So that’s the way it works.”

He stated the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, acquired the report of the EFCC investigation into the alleged bribery shortly earlier than the Christmas and New Yr holidays.

Dazang didn’t give the main points of the result of the report carried out by the anti-graft company.

He added, “What I do know is that one hundred employees are being investigated, and I believe that earlier than we went on trip, the fee formally acquired the indictment report from the EFCC.

“It was primarily based on that that the INEC’s situations of service will now apply to them.

Actually, I don’t have the precise determine (of these indicted).

An EFCC operative advised The us that among the indicted officers had obtained injunctions from courts barring INEC from dismissing them.

It was, nonetheless, gathered that the court docket order wouldn’t cease the EFCC from prosecuting the indicted personnel.

The EFCC supply acknowledged, “We heard that a number of the electoral officers have gone to court docket to cease INEC from dismissing them. Nonetheless, this can not cease us from bringing felony prices in opposition to them.”

We had, on December 10, 2016, reported that the EFCC report contained the result of investigations in 5 geopolitical zones.

In keeping with our Sunday report, two homes and two plazas had been recovered from a former Resident Electoral Commissioner in Rivers State in the course of the 2015 elections, Gesila Khan, whereas her accounts had been frozen.

In accordance with impeccable sources within the EFCC, Khan allegedly acquired N185.8m forward of the March 28 and April eleven, 2015 elections.

It was additionally reported that the EFCC had arrested one Fidelia Omoile, who was the INEC electoral officer within the Isoko South Native Gov