No less than 100 staff members of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, will be suspended following a report indicting them of collecting bribes ahead of the 2015 general elections.

INEC’s spokesman, Nick Dazang, confirmed the development to journalists, saying that the commission had started reviewing the report which was the outcome of an investigation carried out by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

He said that in accordance with the regulations guiding INEC, which borrows from Public Service rules, every staff member indicted in the report will be placed on suspension.

Dazang added that it would be left for the accused persons to prove their innocence before the suspension could be lifted.

“The position of this commission is that we will apply the provisions of the INEC conditions of service which are the same as the public service rules as they apply to those who are indicted,” the INEC spokesman said.

“There is a condition of service which INEC has, which draws from the Public Service rules. When a member of Staff is indicted, then the rules apply; which means that he would now be on suspension.

“When he is placed on suspension, he has to prove his innocence. So that’s how it works.”

Dazang said that the report from the EFCC got to the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, shortly before the Christmas and New Year holidays, but refused to give more details on the content of the report.

“What I know is that 100 staff are being investigated, and I think that before we went on vacation, the commission officially received the indictment report from the EFCC.

“It was based on that that the INEC’s conditions of service will now apply to them.”

However, an INEC national commissioner had told THE PUNCH newspaper in confidence that the indicted persons will have received their suspension letters by the end of January 2017.

Reports also have it that the INEC officials under investigation did not participate in the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States as well as the legislative rerun election in Rivers state in late 2016.

The PUNCH also quoted an anonymous EFCC source as saying that some of the indicted INEC staff members had gone to court seeking for orders prohibiting the anti-graft agency from investigating them.

The source, however, added that even if the orders were granted, it will not prevent the suspects from being prosecuted.

According to the newspaper, many high profile names were mentioned in the EFCC report, including the former Rivers State Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Gesila Khan, who was alleged to have received the sum of N185.5 million ahead of the March 28 and April 11, 2015 elections in the state.

Two houses and two plazas were reportedly recovered from the former REC, while her account was frozen

Also, the EFCC arrested one Fidelia Omoile, the INEC Electoral Officer in Isoko South Local Government Area of Delta State.

The sum of N112.4 million was traced to her account while many sensitive electoral materials were recovered from her residence in Edo and Delta States.

Another INEC administrative officer in Delta State, Oluchi Obi-Brown was also arrested. She allegedly received N111.5 million, while further investigations revealed she had an account in the United States that contained $75,000.

In Akwa Ibom State, a retired INEC official, Edem Effanga, was arrested alongside his accomplice, Immaculata Asuquo, who is the head of Voter Education of INEC in the state.

Effanga was said to have received N241.1 million, which he distributed among other INEC ad-hoc staff members during the 2015 election.

11 INEC officials were also arrested in Gombe state and they admitted to have received about N120 million in bribes prior to the election.

Ahmed Biu and Mohammed Zannah, electoral officers in Akko and Gombe LGAs respectively, admitted to have received the monies from one Yunusa Biri, also a retired INEC official.

The bribe fund was believed to be part of the N23 billion arsenal facilitated by former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke.

The former minister has remained at large since after former President Goodluck Jonathan lost the 2015 election to President Muhammadu Buhari.