Chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Aisha Yesufu, has claimed that the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were allegedly bribed with monies up to $50,000 and given lands to remove the party’s leadership.
INEC recently derecognised the former Senate President, David Mark, as the national chairman of the ADC and former Governor Rauf Aregbesola, as the party’s national secretary.
Yesufu, during an interview on Arise Television’s ‘Prime Time’ programme on Monday, said that there are reports that the INEC Chairman was allegedly threatened into taking the action.
The co-convener of the BringBackOurGirls Movement also questioned why the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) are yet to investigate the allegations.
She said, “There are reports that INEC officials were allegedly bribed with monies up to $50,000, and lands were given. Where is the EFCC and ICPC in all of this?
“The judiciary has turned itself into a place of corrupt politicians. And that’s not what it should be. You’re having places where houses are being built for them, where all sorts of meetings are going on and stuff like that. Then that’s what worries every one of us.
“My thinking is that one institution should be independent, and if you have institutions that are independent, not the one that you’re hearing people being threatened.
“If there is independence, if there’s accountability, transparency, we don’t have all of these shenanigans going on.
“Let’s all go to court and have whatever it is there, but when you see the institutions, and also the judiciary, have turned themselves into weapon of oppression, willing tool of oppression against opposition parties, then that’s something that worries us, and the democracy of our country.
“This democracy, by the way, many people died for it for us to have what we have today, and we cannot have a few people come and destroy it just because they want to hang on to power that they are not deserving of.”