#DiezaniGate: INEC Director faces charges for receiving N16m

THE country’s anti-corruption commission, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is finally set to dock some of the beneficiaries of the N23billion fund raised and made available for the 2015 presidential election by a former Petroleum Resources Minister, Mrs Diezani Alison Madueke, as the commission has concluded arrangements to prosecute a Deputy Director of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) in Akwa Ibom State and former Electoral Officer in Rivers State, Gogo Anderson Waribo, for allegedly collecting N16million from the fund.

Mrs Allison Madueke was said to have raised the sum of $115million, out of which some oil barons contributed up to the tune of $88.35million.

The money was alleged to have been distributed to some individuals, including chieftains of the then ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and some officials of the country’s electoral umpire, INEC, as well as some interest groups through a bank to skew the election in favour of the then President Goodluck Jonathan, who was the standard-bearer of the ruling party.

A statement made available to Tribune Online on Wednesday by the EFCC’s Head, Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, Waribo was arrested by operatives of the anti-graft agency following intelligence report that some INEC officers conspired with some staff of the bank, through which the alleged election sleaze was allegedly distributed, to defraud the Federal Government of several millions of naira.

The statement added that although Waribo had consistently denied involvement in the fraud, the commission’s investigation revealed that the INEC Deputy Director’s name was on the list of beneficiaries of the money.

He was alleged to have received the sum of N16million through his other bank account on March 27, 2015, and allegedly gave N5million from it to Peter Popnen, an ex-INEC official.

The suspect, according to the commission’s spokesman, would be arraigned in court as soon as investigation is completed.

On opening investigations into the slush fund, EFCC had interrogated top PDP chieftains, including former governors, ministers, among others, to get to the roots of how the sleaze was distributed and spent.

A former Minister of Finance, Mrs Esther Nenadi Usman, who was the Director of Finance in the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation ahead of the 2015 elections, revealed to the anti-graft agency during investigations that on the instruction of Alison Madueke she shared N1.850billion to party chieftains from states in the North-East geo-political zone.