EFCC Quizzes INEC’s Abia REC Over N20m Payment

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Resident Electoral Commissioner for Abia State, Sylvester Ezeani, was a guest of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday.
The REC was interrogated by operatives of the commission in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, in connection to an alleged N20 million bribe-for-election-results scandal.

Mr. Ezeani was the REC for Cross River State during the March 28, 2015 Presidential and National Assembly Elections.
While serving there, he allegedly received N20 million out of the entire N241,000,000 released to the state from the controversial $115million lodged with Fidelity Bank Plc, by the immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison- Madueke.
The former minister used the slush funds to bribe electoral officials and politicians towards obtaining a favourable result for her party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Mr. Ezeani, who has since been redeployed to Abia State, is currently in the EFCC custody.
Meanwhile, a member of the House of Representatives representing Oron Federal Constituency, Akwa Ibom State, Nse Bassey Ekpenyong, was arrested for his alleged involvement in certificate forgery.
He was picked on the strength of a petition written by a non-governmental organization to the EFCC, alleging that he committed perjury and financial crimes by submitting a forged Ordinary National Diploma/Statement of Result of the Abia State Polytechnic to INEC, in the build up to the 2015 National Assembly election.
The petitioner also alleged that Mr. Ekpenyong fraudulently obtained salaries, allowances and other financial benefits from his contrived certificate.
The EFCC said its preliminary investigations showed that indeed, not only did Mr. Ekpenyong not attend the Polytechnic as alleged by the petitioner, the OND he used was also not awarded by the institution.
The anti-graft agency said though the lawmaker had been released on bail, investigations were still on-going on the case.