Few weeks ago, Nigerians watched in awe as a police panel constituted to investigate misdemeanours that characterised the controversial December 10, 2016 Rivers State’s rerun elections displayed a raw cash of N111 million. The huge amount of money, which has the capacity to make mockery of bank vaults, was allegedly recovered as bribe from 23 Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials that participated in the poll.
The 15-man panel, headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Mr. Damien Okoro, revealed to Nigerians how top ranking officials if the commission cornered N20 million each out of the total N360 million spoils that was allegedly doled out to them by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State in order to influence the outcome of the election. The panel, which received the full cooperation of the Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu led INEC, also implicated some few other officials of the electoral umpire in the alleged ‘bribe for votes’ racketeering.
To many close observers of the country’s polity, the startling revelation of the panel was hardly surprising. Corruption, especially bribe taking, pervades the nation’s political culture and saps its economy and democracy. It has been a recurring decimal in government agencies and the problem goes beyond a single commission or agency. In fact, I doubt if there are institutions in this country that are not riddled with corruption from top to bottom — police, courts, parastatals, parliament, just to mention a few.
But apart from the recovery of the bribe and the accusations and counter-accusations between the police panel and the Rivers State government over the veracity of the report, there is one major lesson that the report has thrown up to Nigerians, which is INEC did not trot out any justification for the action of its indicted personnel. In fact, the electoral umpire collaborated closely with the panel to unravel what transpired in the rerun poll.
This has shown that there are still individuals with high moral compass in Nigeria like the INEC chairman, Prof. Yakubu that can summon enough courage to cooperate with other relevant government agencies in fighting corruption no matter whose ox is gored.
Before the inauguration of the police panel on the Rivers rerun polls, Prof. Yakubu had left no one in doubt of his unwavering commitment to root-out bad eggs from INEC when he announced the readiness of the commission to prosecute any of its officials that engage in electoral fraud. This was marched with action when he again disclosed that the electoral umpire has successfully prosecuted 61 officials over electoral fraud.
But it did not stop there. INEC set up a panel to probe reports which revealed that more than 200 officials received around N23billion bribe in 2015 elections. In addition, a panel was also instituted to probe the reported violence that marred the parliamentary election held in Rivers State last December. Recently, the panel submitted a report on its findings which even indicted security operatives.
“One of the low points of the Rivers re-run elections of December 10, 2016 was the flagrant intervention of security operatives in the process,” the report said. “This was widely identified by staff of the commission and independent observers alike as one of the major factors that led to the failure of the process in some local government areas.”
It said there were too many security agencies involved in the process outside the framework of the Interagency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES). According to the report, it was not clear whether many of them were acting as part of their various organisations or as groups and individuals serving political interests.
The report added, “But the most mind-boggling were cases of hostage taking, hijack of materials and physical attacks on INEC officials perpetrated by security operatives. Of singular note was a certain policeman named Akin Fakorede, who ostensibly is a commander of the special anti-robbery squad (SARS) in Rivers State.”
With these actions, Prof. Yakubu has not only set a commendable example by confronting the bad eggs in INEC, his incurable penchant to ensure that there is zero tolerance for any level of corruption in the commission has further restored the confidence of Nigerians in the electoral umpire ability to always conduct credible elections.
The cleansing of corrupt elements in INEC is critical if the country democracy is to be well-nurtured, hence, it is proper for Nigerians to rally more support to the present management of the commission’s quest to ensure that issue of bribe-taking during election become a thing of the past. It is also fair to give all the necessary accolades to Prof Yakubu for sanitising the nation’s electoral system through the prosecution of individuals who engage in acts of electoral malpractices.
This is the first time in the recent history of INEC that the electoral umpire is not only embarking on self-cleansing but has further taken a step further to ensure that those that benefited from untold millions of naira from politicians to influence the outcome of elections are not only docked in the conventional courts but are also made to face the public shame of their appalling escapade.
Nigerians are heartened by the renewed vigour by the present INEC leadership to ensure elections in the country are not polluted by bribe-taking elements. Other staff of the commission must buy into this impressive record of attacking corruption which the INEC chairman is known for.
Though it is still early to know how deep the anti-corruption measures taken so far by the commission will impact in subsequent elections in the country, it is not debateable that there is a new sheriff in town in the person of Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu. Yes, a new sheriff has come to INEC.
- Audu, a public affairs commentator, wrote in from Kaduna.
