Three persons including staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, have been arraigned before a magistrate court in Port Harcourt by Department of State Service for buying and selling of Permanent Voter Cards.
The arraigned suspects, Darlington Ogolo, Monday Rowland and Beesor Sorle were accused of buying and selling of PVCs belonging to some individuals in Ward seven, Opobo-Nkoro Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Monday Rowland and Beesor Sorle who are INEC staff in eight-count charges are accused of facilitating the buying of about three thousand, ninety-seven PVC’S belonging to various registered voters in the area.
According to the charge, Darlington Ogolo who is said to be a politician in the area allegedly paid the sum of Three Hundred Thousand Naira as bribe to Beesor Sorle who is a Higher Executive officer of INEC in Ward seven to facilitate the sales of over one thousand PVCs belonging to Ward Seven people.
Darlington Ogolo is also accused of paying the sum of One Hundred and Twenty Thousand Naira to Monday Rowland who is a Chief Clerical Officer of INEC to allegedly facilitate the registration of prospective voters by proxy under Ward seven in Opobo-Nkoro.
When the charges were read, the accused pleaded not guilty and were granted bail by Chief Magistrate, Andrew Jaja in the sum of Two Hundred Thousand Naira each with three sureties.
The matter was adjourned till 20th of February, 2019 for hearing.
One Response