Adelani Adepegba, Abuja
There are strong indications that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission did not formally inform the police and the Federal Road Safety Corps about the alleged involvement of their personnel in corruption during the 2015 elections.
It was learnt that the anti-graft agency failed to write to various security agencies whose personnel were allegedly bribed to manipulate the presidential election by a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
A senior police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity stated that the force was not informed about the indictment of its men until it was reported in the media.
He said the police authorities were not aware of the EFCC investigation of the bribery saga, adding that the authorities would have taken up the issue and ordered further investigation of its indicted personnel.
“The police authorities were not informed about the alleged involvement of our men in the election bribery; the affected personnel would have been subjected to further investigation and if indicted, would have been referred to the orderly room trial and then sanctioned, but how can we probe what we don’t know about?” he argued.
When asked what the Force was doing about the issue, the police spokesperson, Jimoh Moshood, said he could not comment on the matter because the case was in court.
“It would be wrong for me to speak on a case that is already before the court,” he said.
Meanwhile, the FRSC Education Officer, Corps Commander Bisi Kazeem, stated that internal investigation into the allegation against some corps personnel of the Kwara State Sector Command was ongoing.
He, however, said the EFCC did not notify the corps about the investigation or the alleged indictment of its operatives in the bribery saga.
“We were never indicted, not to talk of being informed about the investigation,” Kazeem said via SMS.
He disclosed that some persons of interest in the matter had retired from service, adding that they would, however, be invited to explain their roles in the incident.
The EFCC had tendered a document before the Federal High Court, Lagos in which it said that the Resident Assistant Inspector-General of Police in Kwara State at the time of the elections received N1m cash.
The document stated that while the Commissioner of Police in Kwara State at the time received N10m cash, the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations got N2m cash.
Similarly, both the Assistant Commissioners of Police in charge of operations and administration in Kwara State, according to the document, received N1m cash each.
The document also showed that the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Kwara State for the 2015 general elections was also given a cash of N10m, while the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Administrative Secretary in Kwara State at the time received N5m cash.
The INEC Head of Department, Operations and “his boys” were given N5m, while “other officers” received and shared N2m among themselves.
Also listed as beneficiaries of the Diezani bribe in Kwara State were OC Mopol and “his men,” who got N7m; 21c Mopol and men in the state, who got N10m and the Director of the Department of State Services and his men, who got N2.5m.
The military in Kwara State was bribed with N50m, according to the document, while other security agencies, including the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and the Federal Road Safety Corps got N20m.
An investigator with the EFCC, Usman Zakari, said the breakdown of the bribes was recovered from a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Dele Belgore.
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