Admin l Wednesday, April 05, 2017
IKOYI, Lagos, Nigeria – The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC today arraigned three officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission for allegedly taking bribes to compromise the 2015 general elections.
They are Christian Nwosu, Yisa Adedoyin and Tijani Bashir. They were arraigned on 7 count charge bothering on collecting bribes from a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke on March 27, 2015
Charged along with them was Diezani, who was said to be at large.
In the first charge, the EFCC alleged that Nwosu, Adedoyin and Bashir, in connivance with Diezani, took possession of N264.88m, which the anti-graft agency said they “ought to have reasonably known formed part of proceeds of an unlawful act, to wit: gratification.”
The defendants were said to have on March 27, 2015 made a cash payment of N234.88m without going through any financial institution. Adedoyin was said to have received N70.05m cash from Bashir on March 27, 2015.
Bashir was said to have on the same day taken possession of 64.88m while Nwosu was said to have received and used N30m. The prosecution said the accused persons acted contrary to Section 18(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act 2012 and were liable to be punished under sections 15(3) and 16(2)(b) of the same Act.
When the charges were read to defendants before Justice Mohammed Idris, the first defendant, Nwosu, admitted receiving a cash of N30m as alleged by the EFCC.
The prosecuting counsel for the EFCC, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, informed the judge that Nwosu had elected to enter into plea bargain with the anti-graft agency. Oyedepo added that already Nwosu had made a refund of N5m while he had also surrendered the title document of a landed property he purchased for N25m in Delta State.
Reviewing the facts of Nwosu’s case Oyedepo informed the court that the EFCC acted on an intelligence report that Diezani had stashed $115m in the bank with an oral instruction to the bank that the money should be changed to naira while part of it should be given to certain INEC officials in the run-up to the 2015 general elections.
The prosecutor said N30m out of the money was traced to Nwosu, who kept it in a Hilux van in Ilorin. He added that Nwosu was invited by the EFCC and made a confessional statement.
He tendered both the confessional statement and the document with which Nwosu acknowledged the receipt of the N30. Both were admitted in evidence by the court and marked as exhibits. Oyedepo urged the judge to convict Nwosu as charged in view of his plea and the evidence adduced.
However, the convict’s lawyer, Mrs. Adaku Mbama, pleaded with the judge to temper justice with mercy in deciding the fate of her client. Justice adjourned till April 7, 2017 to sentence Nwosu.
