04 May 2016, Abuja – Nigeria’s former oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke is under investigation for allegedly trying to rig last year’s elections, a spokesman for the country’s anti-corruption agency said on Tuesday.
“We are investigating a case involving the former petroleum minister Mrs Alison-Madueke in respect of some millions of dollars she is accused of giving to INEC officials to influence the 2015 elections,” Wilson Uwujaren, of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), told AFP.
Local media has claimed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) received $115 million in oil money to influence the polls in favour of then president Goodluck Jonathan’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Alison-Madueke was petroleum minister in Jonathan’s government until last year, when he was defeated by Muhammadu Buhari
Some suspects, including senior INEC officials, local oil company executives and the head of a commercial bank through which the bribes were alleged to have been paid, have been arrested.
The EFCC has also frozen the bank accounts of those implicated, Uwujaren added.
- Vanguard