Bribery: 23 INEC Officials Appear In Court, July 17

A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, will on July 17 begin the hearing of the case involving of the 23 officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) facing  alleged bribery charges on the December re-run elections.
The court took the decision at the resumption of the matter Thursday, despite efforts  by the defence counsel  for a long adjournment date that failed. The trial Judge, Justice  Hilary Oshoma, fixed the date to pave way for accelerated hearing on the charge.
The accused persons were allegedly accused of receiving N360 million from an unknown sponsor to compromise the process of the election in the states.
The INEC officials were said to have been deployed from Oyo, Anambra and Plateau State.  They were first arraigned in Abuja High Court and admitted to bail administratively before transferring the case to Port Harcourt for their prosecution.
The 9th and 19th accused persons were not in the court when the matter was called but the lawyer, Mr Wale Balogun, told the court that his clients were sick and unfit to attend the day sitting and requested for an adjournment to enable them recover.
The defence counsel presented two medical reports from Jos, Plateau and Imo States hospitals respectively to buttress his claim.
However, the prosecuting counsel, Alilu Aminu Kayode, opposed the medical reports on the grounds that they did not indicate that the accused persons were critical and added that one of the reports suggested that the bearer had been discharged.
Kayode further argued that the second report failed to disclose the ailment and added that the essence of the reports was to frustrate the trial and prayed the court to reject the two reports as well as issue a bench warrant of arrest to them.
The trial Judge, Justice Hilary Oshoma refused to grant the request for the issuance of bench warrant of arrest on the two accused persons.