Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Joseph Egbonike, has alleged that the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike offered N360 million bribe to 23 staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2016 bye-election.
The DIG said about N114,290 000 million of the bribe had been recovered and deposited with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The police chief appeared before the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on assessment and status of all recovered loot, movable and immovable assets from 2002 to 2020 on Tuesday.
Egbonike said the money was discovered in the course of their investigation. He added that many INEC officials were implicated and some have not been able to produce the funds they received as bribe since 2016.
Explaining what the money was meant for, he said: “There was a governorship rerun in 2016 between Governor Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the main opposition at that time, which was the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the sum of N360 million money was offered as bribe to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials during the 2016 rerun governorship election in Rivers State.”
The DIG who fielded questions from the committee members disclosed that the accused were prosecuted at the Federal High Court in Port-Harcourt, but the judgement which was delivered in favour of the Federal government was appealed against hence, it was still pending.
“The said matter is still in court and I wouldn’t want to speak much on it, but the said amount you are referring to was recovered from 23 officials of INEC during the 2016 rerun elections of the National and State Assembly which was rigged in favour of PDP.
“Although, the persons involved have been prosecuted and convicted, the matter has been appealed and not dispensed.
