Alleged Alison-Madueke’s N30m Bribe Was Spent On Logistics, INEC Director Tells Court
A director with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Christian Nwosu, on Thursday told the Federal High Court in Lagos that the N30 million he was accused of personally collecting from a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke to rig the 2015 general elections was spent on logistics.
Nwosu said this while testifying in a trial-within-trial, being conducted by Justice Mohammed Idris, to determine the voluntariness or otherwise of the extrajudicial statements he made to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) while under investigation for the alleged offence.
The EFCC had arraigned the accused person on a six-count charge bordering on receiving N264 million bribe from former Petroleum Minister Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke to rig the 2015 general election.
The defendant had earlier admitted that he collected the money as he sought for a plea bargain arrangement with EFCC.
However, after Justice Idris, rejected the terms of agreement and Nwosu reversed his “guilty” plea to “not guilty”.
But the third defendant, Yisa Adedoyin, another staff of the Commission, pleaded guilty to one of the counts, receiving N70 million from the alleged bribe.
Consequently, the judge found Adedoyin guilty and convicted him accordingly.
Nwosu while being cross-examined by counsel to the EFCC, Rotimi Oyedepo, disclosed that he did not personally benefit from the money. He said the money was shared out to the ad-hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for logistics.
He maintained, “I did not personally benefit from the N30 million. The ad-hoc staff benefitted because the election went smoothly with the assistance of the logistics support. My commission was aware of the money and the evidence was that the election went smoothly”.
The INEC official said it was one, Mr. Togba, the Director-in-Charge of filled services that directed him through telephone call to go and collect the money.
“The money was not given to me by way of cheque. We were asked to go to the bank to collect the money. No cheque was given to me at the bank. I just signed a document at the bank which confirmed the receipt of the money. I confirmed receiving N224, 880, 000 on March 27, 2015. I did not instruct the bank to transfer the money to any account because it was not for me but for the coordinator (Mr. Isa Adedoyin) who is to ensure that the money get to the ad-hoc staff”, he further said.
Nwosu further disclosed that the N30 million that was paid to him out of the amount collected at the bank was for the settlement of the ad-hoc staff logistics.
Giving a breakdown of how the money was paid to him, he said N17 million was paid into his Diamond bank account on April 7, 2015 while N13 million was also paid into his Union bank account on April 13, 2015.
Further hearing in the matter has been adjourned to November 15.
