Prison gate swung open for an ex-Administrative Secretary of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mr. Christian Nwosu, on Thursday, as the Federal High Court in Lagos, convicted him for bribery.
Justice Mohammed Idris found Nwosu guilty of benefiting from a sum of $115.01million which a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, reportedly dished out to compromise the 2015 general elections.
The ex-Administrative Secretary was charged to court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, which accused him of collecting N30million from the Diezani illicit bazaar.
Although Nwosu admitted, during the trial in 2017, that he received N30million out of the N264.8million, he insisted that he never benefitted from the fun but spent it on logistics.
“I did not personally benefit from the N30m,” Nwosu had maintained.
“The ad hoc staff benefitted because the election went smoothly with the assistance of the logistics support. My commission was aware of the money and the evidence was that the election went smoothly.”
Despite his admission of complicity, Nwosu maintained that he made the three confessional statements he made to the commission in December 2016 and March 2017 under duress. The EFCC, Nwosu said pointedly, coerced him into admitting that he collected the bribe from Alison-Madueke.
Nwosu was not done. He also alleged that he was denied access to is lawyer.