T HE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission may soon probe the activities of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Highly-placed sources at the anti-graft agency and The Presidency disclosed this just as our correspondents learnt on Sunday that Yinka, the wife of a former Oyo State Governor, Alhaji Rashidi Ladoja, was arrested on Saturday evening by EFCC operatives over an alleged N100m fraud.
Our sources said that the decision to investigate INEC was reached after the interrogation of four of its officials over N121.8m donations to some associations, including the National Association of Nigerian Students and civil society groups.
One of the sources, who is a top official of the anti-graft agency, said interrogators were stunned when they discovered that most of the money said to have been released to some organisations did not reach them.
He claimed that even when money was released, only a fraction was actually given to those listed as beneficiaries.
For example, the source disclosed, that out of about N5.3m that was said to have been collected by a senior official of INEC on behalf of all civil society groups, only N900, 000 was actually released to them.
It was gathered that INEC had earlier agreed to disburse N100m to registered nongovernmental civil society organisations ?at a rate to be determined by the commission.?
Many of the organisations which felt short-changed reportedly sent a petition to the EFCC complaining of malpractices.
Those interrogated are said to include the Director of Finance and Supply, Mrs. E.I Gamble; Director of Audit, Alhaji M.M Mustapha; Deputy Director (Cash), Mr. Israel Mohammed and the Chief Press Secretary to the commission?s chairman, Mr.
Andy Ezeani. It was gathered that while the first two officers were interrogated on Wednesday, Ezeani was quizzed on Thursday. All of them were said to have made useful statements to their interrogators and were thereafter released on bail on self-recognition. Our source said, ?What we found out after the interrogations of these three staff was astonishing. The whole place is rotten and I think we have to launch an all-scale probe into the activities of the commission.
I wonder why the commission would give money out to an organisation and yet, some staff of the commission will collide with some people not to release the total sum. We have also found out that INEC might have used several means to siphon money out of its purse towards the end of last year in order to beat the order of the federal government which says that unspent funds must be returned to the federal purse.?
The Spokesperson for the EFCC, Mr. Femi Babafemi, who confirmed the development, said that investigations had revealed that some sharp practices were actually done in the case of the donations. As the case is going now, we are gradually getting to the root of the matter. We have interrogated some officers of INEC. We are determined to get to the root of the matter,? he said.
When contacted on Sunday, Ezeani, who did not deny the interrogation, said that none of them was still with the EFCC.
He, however, admitted that INEC had had instances where the EFCC asked for details in the course of investigations.
Ezeani said,No director of INEC is arrested or under detention by EFCC or any other security agency in the country.
As with all other public institutions and establishments in the country, INEC has had instances where the EFCC in the course of investigating one petition or another requested relevant officers of the Commission to furnish it with explanations to assist it in its investigation. The Commission and its officials have never seen such a request in any bad light and so, have always made themselves available to throw light on any issue on which explanation is called for.?
A presidency source who also spoke with one of our correspondents on the condition of anonymity said that the likelihood that president Umaru Yar?Adua might be briefed about the development this week was high.
The source said, ?We are aware about the case. I think EFCC has decided to seek the President?s nod in carrying out a probe of INEC. You know the President is concerned about the country?s electoral process, especially now that he is studying the report of the National Electoral Reforms Panel. But I don?t think the probe will target anybody. It is meant to clean up the system.Meanwhile, sources close to the anti-graft agency said on Sunday that Ladoja?s wife was arrested by operatives on Saturday evening in Ibadan. One of the sources said that the former Oyo State First Lady, who runs an investment company, was taken to Abuja on Sunday. Although no official details were given on the N100m fraud, our correspondents gathered that the company was allegedly used to carry out the alleged fraud. When contacted on Sunday , Babafemi said the woman was still being detained as more information was being extracted from her. He said, ?Mrs. Ladoja was picked up by the operatives of the EFCC on Saturday and whisked to Abuja in the early hours of Sunday morning. For now I can not give you any other details until full investigation is conducted.Our correspondents also gathered on Sunday that the EFCC had come under pressure to release the Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, Mr. Ransome Owan, and six commissioners of the body who are being detained over an alleged N5bn scam. It was learnt that the pressure was because one of those detained is believed to be the son of a prominent Emir in the North. The man, identified as Abdularaman Ado, is the vicechairman and commissioner in charge of Market Competition and Pricing of NERC.
The other commissioners are Mohammed Baba Gana Bunu (Finance and Support Services), Prof. O.C Iloeje (Research and Development), Dr. Muhamed Alimi Abdularasaq (Legal, Licensing and Enforcement); Abimbola Odubiyi (Engineering Standards and Safety); and Dr. race Eyoma (Government and Consumer Affairs.) It was learnt that emissaries sent to EFCC were told that the petition against the suspects was minuted on by the Presidency and that the commission had to be careful in handling it.
We received calls on the need to release Ado whom they claim is a prince, but we told them that we do not care as the case in question is weighty and we have to do our job, ? one of our sources said.

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Probe probe every where. You mean none has been convicted to rot in jail yet? I want to hear that so so and so person has been probed, properties confisticated and so so and so has been jailed.

i wonder oooo all dis probing and no one has ben convicted yet