New documents exclusively leaked to SaharaReporters authoritatively confirm that Brigadier General A.A. Momoh, the Commander of the 32nd Artillery Brigade, convened a Board of Inquiry (BOI) to investigate Captain Sagir Koli, the conscientious whistle-blower who exposed the 2014 plan by which the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rigged the Ekiti gubernatorial contest.
Koli discretely audio-taped a meeting between army officers and politicians on June 20 in Akure in the implementation of the plan, which returned Ayodele Fayose.
General Momoh was the senior army officer who allegedly acted on behalf of the Chief of Army Staff in the rigging plan. At least two of the politicians involved claimed on the tape to have been acting on behalf of President Goodluck Jonathan.
The new documents show that Brig. General Momoh convened the panel, in his words, "to investigate the circumstance that led Capt. SI Koli (N/12074) to abscond from his place of duty on 1 Aug 14 and still remain absent while deployed for security duty during the 2014 Osun State Gubernatorial Election."
The BOI had six members, led by Col. D. Akama as chairman. General Momoh said it would sit at a date and time "to be determined by the president," but it was not clear whether that meant President Jonathan, or what president he was referring to.
The panel called nine witnesses, including three from the 32nd Artillery Brigade, Captain Koli's regiment. Copies of the findings and opinions were not part of the leaked documents, but were to be completed and submitted on August 14, 2014.
It has since emerged that Brig. General Momoh, at about the time that he convened the BOI, also authorized the illegal abduction and torture of Capt. Koli's 15-year old younger brother, Adamu Koli.
In retaliation against his brother, the teenage Adamu was illegally detained, tortured, starved, and chained to a bed in the military hospital at Adekunle Fajuyi's Cantonment in Ado-Ekiti.
Capt. Koli told SaharaReporters in an exclusive Live interview on SaharaTV last Saturday that Brig. General Momoh's objective of abducting and torturing the teenage Adamu was to lure him out of hiding. The captain has been in hiding since he first leaked the recordings.
SaharaReporters first released secret audio recordings, a sworn affidavit, and transcripts of the detailed plan to rig the election. Other key participants in the plan, and at the election-eve meeting in Akure, were: Senator Iyiola Omisore; the Minister for Police Affairs, Jelili Adesiyan; Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, who was at the time the Minister of State for Defence; and a man identified as Honourable Abdulkareem, who claimed to be a member of the National Assembly.
Capt. Koli, as one of the subordinates to Brig. General Momoh, accompanied the General to the meeting, during which the politicians bullied and ordered him around. They bribed him with a huge stash of cash and prospects of promotion if he made the election manipulation successful. Among others, he was to clamp down and arrest members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as well as grant privileges to members of the PDP involved in the rigging plan.
Capt. Koli's audio recording revealed that Obanikoro was directed to attend the meeting on special assignment by President Jonathan, who wanted to make sure that the Ekiti race ended in a PDP victory. It also revealed, and other statements by Capt. Koli confirmed, that the Ekiti race was to be the blueprint for electoral manipulation in the Osun State gubernatorial contest that was to follow in 2014, and later for the 2015 general elections. It was in the course of that Osun State plan that General Momoh set up the BOI.
SaharaReporters has repeatedly contacted the presidency, as well as spokespersons for the army for reaction to our story, but they have yet to respond to our inquiries.
SaharaReporters has authoritatively learned that in order to stymie further discussions and stories relating to the exposed Ekiti rigging saga, President Jonathan has secretly funnelled bribes to several editors, as well as radio and television station chiefs.
Observers say it is curious that neither the presidency nor any of the security authorities has taken up the Ekiti rigging situation with the outrage it deserves.
Meanwhile, one of the main culprits, former ambassador to Ghana Obanikoro, has been bragging about filing defamation lawsuits against a number of reporters and newspaper concerns, ostensibly to intimidate them. He is also quietly bribing members of the Nigerian Senate to approve his re-nomination by President Jonathan as Minister of state for Defense.
SaharaReporters, which broke the story, has certainly not been served.
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Source: This article first appeared on saharareporters.com and posted here with special permission.
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