The Police has alleged that Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike bribed staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission, sent to the state to conduct the 2016 by-election with the sum of three hundred and sixty million naira to influence results of the election.
Deputy Inspector General of Police, Joseph Egbonike made this known when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee investigating the matter.
He noted that about N114,290 million of the total money has been recovered from some of the officers.
The DIG told the panel that: “There was a govenorship rerun in 2016 between Governor Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the main opposition at that time, which was the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the sum of N360 million money was offered as bribe to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials during the 2016 rerun governorship election in Rivers State.”
“On 10th December 2016, during the National and State Assembly rerun elections in Rivers State, efforts were put to rig the said election through inducement, bribery and intimidation of electoral officials, as the sum of three hundred and sixty million naira (N360, 000,000.00) was given by governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, to twenty three (23) electoral officials, deployed to Rivers State from Anambra, Oyo and Plateau States, to compromise and influence the outcome of the election,” he added.
