PDP doubts police report on Rivers N111 million bribe

A day after the police presented N111 million cash reportedly recovered from 23 INEC officials as bribed offered them by the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, to compromise the National Assembly re-run polls in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party has faulted the report, saying it lacked credibility.
Money allegedly recovered from INEC Electoral Officials by the I-G’s committee set up to investigate Electoral Offences and Other Violent Acts during the Re-Run Rivers State Parliamentary Election held December 10, 2016, displayed by the committee during presentation of its report to I-G Ibrahim Idris in Abuja, yesterday. Photo. Gbemiga Olamikan.
The party said the cash could have been taken from any place and displayed by the police so as to achieve a predetermined purpose and should therefore be dismissed with a wave of the hand.
The chairman of the caretaker committee of the People’s Democratic Party, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, who made the call, said the country needed urgent institutional reforms for security agencies to serve Nigerians instead of those in government.
Makarfi also challenged the police and other security agencies in the country to rise above partisan considerations in order to serve Nigerians better.
Senator Makarfi spoke when the Strategy Review and Inter-party Committee of the party headed by Professor Jerry Gana submitted its report in Abuja on Wednesday.
The caretaker committee chairman, who called on the party to especially pray for the quick recovery of President Muhammadu Buhari, admitted that though the party was ready to take over in 2019, it was not ready to do so through the death of an incumbent president.
“What is happening in Rivers State reminds me of the work of magicians. How can the police display money and claim that it was from bribe given by the PDP? We could have also brought money. What if the police and the security agencies who were also compromised? Was their money not recoverable?