A staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr. Christian Nwosu, has told a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos that he collected the sum of N30 million from the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke and spent it on logistics aimed at influencing the outcome of the 2015 general elections.
Mr Nwosu who was then the Kwara State Administrator of INEC gave this evidence while testifying in a “trial-within-trial”.
A trial-within-trial is conducted to test the voluntariness of confessional statements made by suspects during investigations.
The INEC staff is standing trial for allegedly conspiring with two other INEC officials to take a bribe of N264.8m from a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, to compromise the elections.
The offence was said to have been committed in March 2015.
At today’s proceedings, Mr Nwosu also disclosed that though he signed for the N264.8m, he only got N30m which he did not personally benefit from as it was shared out to the ad-hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission for logistics.
The EFCC had alleged that the N264.8m was part of a total sum of $115m which Mrs Allison-Madueke Diezani doled out to several individuals across the 36 states of the federation for the purpose of influencing the outcome of the elections in favour of the incumbent President at the time.