N360m bribe: Court slates  May 12 to rule on INEC officials’ application challenging jurisdiction

Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Friday, slated May 12, 2017 to rule on the application filed by the 23 staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) arraigned before him over allegation of bribery.

The Federal Government had, on March 7, 2017 slammed a seven-count charge against the INEC staff for allegedly  receiving N360 million as bribe from the Rivers State Government to compromise the results of the December 10, 2016 re-run parliamentary elections in the state.

Arguing the application of the 1st to 20th defendants in the matter, their counsel, Ahmed Raji (SAN), said the Federal High Court in Abuja lacks the territorial jurisdiction to hear the matter.

“We are challenging the court’s jurisdiction because all the alleged acts took place in Port-Harcourt and none of the 1st to 20th defendants live here in Abuja”, he said and asked the court to strike out the charge against his clients for lack of jurisdiction, lacking in merit and for abuse of court’s process.

Alternatively, Raji asked the court for an order transferring the matter to the Port-Harcourt division of the court, saying that the prosecution has not placed any evidence before the court to support the reason for charging the defendants before a court in Abuja for offences allegedly committed in Port-Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

According to him, all the photographs attached with the counter-affidavit by the prosecution are not admissible, as they violate Section 84 of the Evidence Act.

According to Raji, the litigation officer in the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), who deposed to the affidavit is not a proper person to tender the photographs as he was not familiar with the matter.

He wondered why a person staying in Abuja can identify a beheaded body in Rivers State and attached the photograph and further submitted that the prosecution has not placed credible evidence before the court to show that there was crisis that led to deaths in Rivers State.

“We do not intend to evade trial, all what we want is to try us where they said we committed the alleged offence,” he said.

“We urge your Lordship to strike out the charge or transfer it to the Port-Harcourt division of the Federal High Court. If their witnesses who are security personnel are afraid to go Port-Harcourt for the matter, the defendants are ready to do so”, he argued.

Counsel to the 21st and 23rd defendants, U.O Ukairo and the counsel representing the 22nd defendant both aligned with the submissions of Raji and added that the burden is on the prosecution to show prevalence of insecurity, which they said was the reason for charging the defendants in Abuja.

In his counter affidavit, the prosecution counsel, A.K Aliyu, an Assistant Chief State Counsel, Office of the AGF urged the court to dismiss the application of the defendants, where-in they are challenging the jurisdiction of the court and the validity of the charge.

He said the deponent of the counter affidavit was familiar with the matter, adding that the deponent was properly briefed by Mr, Dan Okoro, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, who headed the Inspector General’s team to Rivers state during the re-run election.

Aliyu, who prayed the court to ignore the misconception asked Justice Tsoho to dismiss the application of the defendants for lacking in merit.

He said the information brought before the court was in conformity with Section 93 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) and urged the court to consider the charges against the defendants as properly brought before the court.

Having listened to the submissions of counsel to all the parties in the matter, the trial Judge, Justice Tsoho adjourned till May 12, 2017 to deliver ruling on the application of the defendants, seeking to strike out the charged against them.

It will be recalled that the defendants could not take their plea last month when they were brought to court because of their application  dated March 13, 2017 challenging territorial jurisdiction of the court.

Government had, further alleged that apart from the N360 million bribe allegedly received from the Rivers state government,  N111 million and N300,000 were recovered from the 23 INEC personnel.

Each electoral officer, the Federal Government claimed, got N1 million, while the three senior electoral officers for the Senatorial Zones received an extra N5 million each which brought the total sum to N360 million.