It has been made known by the chairman of the panel set by the inspector general of police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris that the sum of N360 million was given as bribe during the Rivers election re-run.
According to the report, the alleged money was given to 23 electoral officers in order to manipulate the election.
The state government has however denied the allegation with a swift reaction by dismissing the money evidence presented by the police; saying it is a cheap blackmail.
On the other hand, the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, took the report from the police panel, stating that the report will help them clarify issues within its system.
The chairman of the committee, Mr. Damian Okoro said that a sum of N20 million each was given to three senior electoral officers by Governor Nyesom Wike. He also stated that another N15 million was given to each of the other officers.
The governor who refused to cooperate with the police investigation team had gone to the federal high court in Abuja to stop the panel from investigating the election re-run.
DSP Okoro also said there were some cases of misconduct on the part of the electoral officers.
He said: “By this investigation, this panel has diligently unraveled what went wrong with the re-run election in Rivers, the details of which are contained in the report.
“We discovered that failure of leadership and follower-ship rather than law enforcement was responsible for the political upheaval in the state,”
He alleged that some of the vicious acts and violence were inflamed by callous politicians in their bid to acquire power by all means. “Apart from their utterances, politicians in their desperation for power, also armed thugs who unleashed terror on their opponents,” he explained.
the Rivers election has been one of the most crucial gubernatorial election in Nigeria.
No comments:
Post a Comment