Elections postponement caused by disagreement over alleged kickback.

ABUJA – Fresh facts emerging suggest that the postponement of penultimate Saturday’s National Assembly elections may have been caused by a disagreement over the percentage of kickback from the contract cost.

The kickback, it is also being alleged, was meant to be paid by the Nigerian front who packaged the foreign companies that got the contract, for the purposes of funding the campaign of a political party.

These allegations were contained in a petition sent to the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, by a group, Electoral Integrity Group.

The petition which was stamped April 11, 2011, and dated April 7, 2011, reads:
“Dear Madam,
“INVESTIGATION OF INEC BALLOT PAPERS CONTRACTORS
“Please recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission awarded the printing of ballot papers for the April 2011 elections to six contractors:

Messrs Tip 3, Graphic Inline, Kalamazoo, Aero-Vote, Sanfrano and VI Solutions.  These six companies. Though foreign based have their Nigerian fronts packaged jointly by another Nigerian.

“The deal here was that, if and when they secure these contracts, part of the money should be used clandestinely to fund a particular political party that ‘has a vibrant head but lacks resources to carry on its campaigns’.

“Consequently, there were brickerings on ‘percentage of funding’ which some of them thought was ‘high’ but subsequently paid, though reluctantly.  This we believe impacted negatively on the execution of these jobs, thus leading to late arrival of materials and outright rejection of offers midway into execution.

“Our Prayers: The chairman is hereby called upon to investigate the circumstances of these fundings;  To unearth the name of the political party;  Determine who influenced who in the diversion of funds;  Determine the volume of funds involved; Establish the linkage between these diversions and the botched elections of April 02, 2011; Prosecute those found to be involved in this rape of the nation and sabotage.”

The petition was signed by the group’s national president, Alhaji Sani Yakubu.
It wöuld be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and indeed the nation was thrown into confusion penultimate Saturday when some materials for elections into the National Assembly did not arrive, forcing a postponement of the elections.

This development, if established, would be reminiscent of another arrangement in 1979/1980 in the contract award for some parts of the Ajaokuta Steel Complex to the Nigerian office of an European Construction firm with a view to using part of the contract money for the settlement of a debt owed to one of the leaders of leading political party in the country.

The party leader had actually advanced some millions of naira to his political party for election campaigns and was promised of repayment from the funds of the contract.

Source : www.vanguardngr.com