The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday, categorically refuted reports alleging its resident commissioner in Adamawa had received a $3m bribe from the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar.
There have been widespread reports in the media claiming that the PDP and Atiku had earmarked huge amounts of monies to buy votes nationwide during the February 16 presidential election that was postponed to February 23.
However, INEC dismissed the reports as fake news, saying its resident officer in Adamawa Kashim Gaidam did not receive such amount of money as reported in some media outlets. The reports also said Atiku had gotten a house for Gaidam in Dubai.
While debunking the news, INEC tweeted a screenshot of a Facebook post that said “Breaking News: I rejected Atiku’s $1m bribe plus a house in Dubai- Adamawa REC.” INEC tweeted the caption: “The Adamawa INEC REC completely dissociates himself from the allegation that he had an offer of $1m and a house in Dubai as no offer whatsoever was ever made to him by anyone.”
This comes two days after the INEC postpone the general elections, which was initially scheduled to commence on Saturday last week, by one week. INEC postponed the presidential and National Assembly elections a few hours to the commencement of voting on Saturday, February 16.
The presidential and National Assembly elections will now hold on February 23 while the governorship and state houses of assembly elections will take place on March 9. Following the postponement, INEC reopened campaigns for political parties before the elections begin on Saturday. The election campaigns that have been resumed are, however, expected to end on Thursday, 21 February 2019.
