INEC Places 205 Staff on Suspension over N23bn Election Bribe

• Blacklists fraudulent NGO, WANEO
•Commission drags six commissioners to presidency
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has suspended 205 of its staff over alleged involvement in bribery, corruption and money laundering during the 2015 general election.

Similarly, the commission blacklisted a non-governmental organisation, the West African Network of Election Observers (WANEO), indicted by its panel for alleged attempt to bribe staff of the commission to influence the outcome of the 2015 general election.

It said cases of one former national commissioner, five former Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC) have been referred to the Presidency and the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) for further necessary action.

In the same vein, the commission said 70 of its staff with insufficient information regarding their involvement in the election scam will be referred back to the EFCC  for further investigation and possible prosecution.

These decisions, according to INEC, were reached by its management after due consideration of the report of its expanded Appointment, Promotion and Disciplinary Committee on the EFCC interim report on the bribery and money laundering charges during the 2015 general election.

Giving more details on the decisions reached by the INEC management at its meeting yesterday, one of the National Commissioners, Mohammed Haruna, said out of the over N23 billion which the EFCC reportedly said was used to influence the elections, the disciplinary committee established that N3,046,829,000 was received by the INEC in 16 states.

Haruna said the INEC panel, during its interrogation of the affected staff, found out that WANEO was involved in a systematic attempt to undermine the 2015 general election by acting as a link to bribe the staff.
“WANEO and its principal promoters are immediately blacklisted. The network shall no longer be involved in election observation and any other activities organised by INEC,” he said.

Speaking further on the investigations conducted by the internal disciplinary committee, Haruna said additional 80 staff of the commission whose names were not among those indicted by the EFCC probe report, were invited for questioning by the INEC panel thereby bringing the total number of staff to 182.

“Based of the their level of involvement in the crime, 205 of the affected staff will be placed on interdiction or suspension and placed on half salary pending the outcome of the prosecution in court.
“The commission today considered the report of its expanded appointment, promotion and disciplinary committee on the EFCC interim report on the bribery and money laundering charges during the 2015 general election.

“You may recall that late last year, the commission received an interim report from the EFCC detailing allegations against 202 serving and retired INEC officials and staff in 16 states of the federation.

Haruna who was flanked by other national commissioners, including May Agbamuche-Mbu and Prof. Okechukwu Ibeanu, said the committee’s work was thorough and painstaking, adding that it involved the “issuance of queries to the 202 staff mentioned in the report and interviewing them individually in accordance with the principle of fair hearing and in consonance with INEC staff conditions of service.

“As a result of the initial findings of the committee, an additional 80 serving officials of the commission, who were not named in the EFCC report but whose names came up in the course of the investigation were also queried and interviewed.”