Politics
EFCC ropes in more ex-ministers over Diezani election bribe scam
The EFCC dragnet has dragged in more former ministers who were allegedly involved in the sharing of the N23.29 billion purportedly doled out by a former minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke in the heat of the 2015 general election.
Those now in the EFCC’s net include a former Minister of State, Foreign Affairs, Dr Nurudeen Muhammad who is alleged to have collectedN500 million and ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Aminu Bashir Wali said to have collected N950 million.
Reports indicate that the former ministers who were picked up on Wednesday were still till last night battling to secure their freedom by applying for bail.
A source in the anti-graft agency also revealed that more of the cash amounting to about N15 billion has been traced to some other politicians from the geo political zones thus: the Seven North-West states- N5,097,064,000; REC and five others- N681m; Cross River PDP chairman- N500m; INEC officials in Oyo and Ogun- N359m; Fidelity Bank- profit of N49.7m from the deal; two politicians from South-East- N700m.
Read also: Buhari takes war on corruption to London
“The chairman (EFCC) and his crack team have gone far in tracing more than N15billion of the N23.29billion which was shared to party leaders and INEC officials in the six geopolitical zones to influence election results and to stop APC from being declared as the winner of the 2015 presidential election, the source stated.
He continued, “Some of the beneficiaries have started refunding the cash given to them. We have the list of all beneficiaries from Fidelity Bank. This is one of the reasons why we kept the MD of the bank and Head of Operations in custody. Our priority is to recover the bribe cash.
“By the time we get reports from all the geopolitical zones, we would have tracked down the bribe sum. Findings confirmed that the poll bribery cash was shared between February and April 2015 in a desperate and untidy manner.
“Our concern is not about any party but the use of proceeds from stolen oil to bribe INEC officials”, the source said.
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