The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Friday, disclosed that those being investigated over the suspicious funding of the 2015 presidential election will soon be arraigned in court.
The commission is investigating alleged illegal funding of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s presidential election which its candidate, former President Goodluck Jonathan, eventually lost.
Many party chieftains have been quizzed over the project, including a former Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Madueke, who was alleged to have shelled out illegal fund to alter the outcome of the poll.
Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were also accused of being the beneficiaries of the said illegal fund.
Commission’s spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, told Saturday Tribune that once the cases are ready, the suspects would be off to court for full trial, adding that three suspects were already on for trial, with one of them arraigned in a Port Harcourt court.
He was reacting to claims by some suspects in the alleged crimes of being put under probe indefinitely by the commission without trial.
He dismissed their claims as lies.
Saturday Tribune had been told by sources close to some suspects in the alleged illegal campaign funding cases that instead of being charged to court, suspects are being pressurized to return the alleged portion of the illegal fund in their possession.
A couple of the suspects, it was learnt, had to make surreptitious representation to the commission, to have their cases charged to court, following their firm position that they had no money in their possession to refund.
Some senior lawyers were said to have intervened on behalf of some suspects, to have their cases taken to court.
The commission leadership is allegedly more interested in the recovery of the alleged illegal monies with the suspects, with a source saying that the trial option is considered the last resort.
The limited successes from courts regarding the cases brought for trial by the commission, are also said to be a factor in the alleged placement of recovery ahead of trial by the leadership.
Uwujaren dismissed this view, asking if Saturday Tribune believed such a claim.
The suspects however claimed that the operatives handling their cases have shown more commitment to getting them to part with the illegal fund being claimed to be in their possession than getting them charged to court for proper trial.
Some of those involved are reportedly irrevocably determined to face trial than being compelled or cajoled to refund monies not illegally received or given.
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