Rivers rerun: Police recover over N111m bribe from INEC officials.

The panel set up by the Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Mr Ibrahim Idris, to probe the December 10, 2016 re-run elections in Rivers State, said, yesterday, that an alleged sum of N360 million was given as bribe by the state government to 23 electoral officers to influence the election. Rivers State government in a swift reaction, dismissed the money evidence presented to the police panel as a cheap blackmail, even as the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, welcomed the police panel report, saying it would help it cleanse its system.

Meanwhile, presenting the report of the joint Police and Department of State Security, DSS, team, led by Mr Damian Okoro, a Deputy Commissioner of Police in Abuja yesterday, it said out of the alleged N360m bribe, N111million and N300,000 were recovered from the electoral officers. Okoro said investigations revealed that each electoral officer got N15m, while the three senior electoral officers for the senatorial zones received an extra N5m each which brought the total to N360m. Giving details of the investigation, Mr Okoro said: “We discovered that failure of leadership and followership, rather than law enforcement, was responsible for political upheaval in the state. “There was, however, some cases of misconduct on the part of some electoral officers and law enforcement agents, who unfortunately allowed themselves to be compromised in their line of duties and deserve to be disciplined appropriately.” Responding after receiving the report, the IG, Mr Ibrahim Idris disclosed that a report on the findings of the investigation will be made to the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation for further action regarding prosecution. “This investigation will put an end to do-or-die politics that is hampering democracy in Nigeria.

It will put an end to misconduct among security agents and even among electoral officers especially the killing of security agents who are not politicians but only doing their job.” Idris vowed that appropriate actions will be taken against those indicted, noting that the six police officers (Governor Wike’s security details) earlier dismissed for misconduct, will be prosecuted. Reminded that Governor Wike and Rivers State government had alleged the panel had a pre-conceived plan which may have cast doubts on its findings, the IG said: “As for the governor of Rivers State, this is democracy, there is freedom of speech, and everybody has freedom to say anything he likes. The panel went to meet him and in his wisdom, he refused to co-operate. “But the investigation is a joint investigation of both the Police and the DSS. I believe Nigerian citizens will have confidence in the outcome of the investigation. Aside the security agencies, the office of the Attorney-General will be involved. You cannot say these three agencies of arrest, investigation and prosecution cannot be relied on.” Reiterating that the level of indictment according to the report of the investigation cuts across all politicians, INEC and security agents,
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