Femi Fani-Kayode’s tweet: Everything that I said about @MBuhari during the Presidential campaign
has come true. That is what is paining them. Now they seek vengeance.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has freezed one of the accounts belonging to Ex-Aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode over the $2.1bn arms deal fraud. Recent reports from Nation newspaper has it that the account was frozen in line with the intensified efforts of the EFCC to investigate into the alleged funds received from ex-President Goodluck Jonathan during the build-up to the 2015 elections.
According to Femi Fani-Kayode’s
declaration on April 22, 2016, the ex-Aviation minister denied knowledge of the
cash withdrawal from the CBN or the funding of the campaign by the former
National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki. He however admitted that he was
paid from a company account linked with former Minister of Finance, Mrs. Nenadi
Usman which was also implicated in the campaign funds fraud.
He said that our funds were given to
us by the President who was the leader of our party through the Director of
Finance of the PCO and we were not in a position to inquire into the sources of
funding of the party’s campaign. Indeed, it was not our responsibility to do
so. Once I got these clarifications and confirmations, I agreed to receive the
funds into my bank account and use them for their stated purpose. The transfers
were made and I used the funds to carry out all our operations during the
course of the presidential campaign.
It was an aggressive and well-run
campaign and we gave our opponents a very hard time indeed. It was also very
expensive and we barely had the resources that we really needed, but we did an
effective job with the little we were given. The whole nation, including our
friends and our enemies, can bear witness to that and they saw the excellent
quality of our work. Hardly anyone can dispute this, yet some fail to
appreciate the fact that such a strong showing costs a lot of money. Media and
publicity campaigns cannot be run on goodwill alone. You need cash and plenty
of it.
During the course of the election and
after its conclusion, I submitted detailed accounts of our expenses and
evidence of our work to the Director of Finance of the PCO for onward
transmission to the Director-General of the PCO and ultimately President
Jonathan himself about how the money was spent and they were satisfied.
Given the fact that these were not
public funds, the only legal body that can inquire into our expenditure of
campaign funds is President Goodluck Jonathan who set up the PCO. I cannot sit
by silently as my name is dragged through the mud in this way and I am
convicted in the court of public opinion. This has happened to me once before
and it took me seven years to clear my name. It will not happen to me again. Consequently
I am constrained to take this opportunity to state the facts of this matter,
set the record straight and await my traducers and accusers to make their next
move. It is indeed time to challenge those that are making these allegations
and to kill the lie. The fact that my bank account was frozen on the orders of
the EFCC two weeks ago without any explanation is proof of the fact that I am
being targeted and that those that seek to have their wicked way with me are
about to pounce. Given this, it is important that all the relevant facts are
put before the world before I am subjected to the Dasuki treatment, put away
indefinitely and not given the opportunity to defend myself before the public.
Meanwhile, in their usual manner, after this is done, the EFCC will then flood
the media with all manner of lies about my so-called atrocities which only
exist in the figment of their imagination.
The allegation of fraud and the
receipt of public funds from the National Security Adviser’s Office and Central
Bank into my bank account are false. These allegations are baseless, wicked,
shameful and irresponsible. It is not true that any money was paid into my
account by or from the National Security Adviser’s Office, the Central Bank of
Nigeria or any other government agency or institution last year or at any other
time. As the Director of Media and Publicity of the Jonathan Presidential
Campaign Organization, I was asked to submit a budget for my Directorate by
Chief Tony Anenih, the Presidential Adviser to the Presidential Campaign
Organization and Mrs. Nenadi Usman, the Director of Finance. My team and I
prepared the budget and it was approved.
Rather than collect cash, for security
reasons and the purposes of accountability, I was advised by the Director of
Finance to open a bank account for this purpose, which I did. The funds were
paid into that account in instalments at the beginning of last year by the
Director of Finance and each deposit was authorized and approved by the Presi
dential Adviser to the PCO, Chief Tony Anenih. The account that they used to
transfer the money to me was a private company account which was owned or under
the control of the Director of Finance. It was the same company account that
was used to send money to all the other Directors of the PCO and the Zonal
Directors, State Directors and all our PDP governorship and legislative
candidates during the various campaigns.
When I asked about the sources of the
funds, I was told by the Director of Finance that the funds were sourced from
private individuals and private companies who opted to support and fund
President Jonathan’s campaign. She told me that no money was paid into her
company from any government official, account or agency. This she told me in
the presence of witnesses and I believed her.
I was told that there was a
fundraising event held by our party (PDP) which took place in early January
2015 in which billions of naira were raised specifically for the Presidential
campaign. I believed this to be true and I had no reason to doubt it. In
January 2015, I was appointed as the Director of Media and Publicity for the
Jonathan/Sambo Presidential Campaign Organization by President Goodluck
Jonathan. The Director-General of the Campaign Organization was Senator Ahmadu
Alli and the Deputy Director-Generals were Alhaji Ibrahim Turaki SAN (North)
and Governor Peter Obi (South).
Chief Tony Anenih, an elder statesman
and one of the most distinguished and revered leaders in our country, was the
Presidential Adviser to the campaign organization. There were at least 10 other
directors and directorates apart from me and mine including the Directorate of
Mobilization which was led by the respected Professor Jerry Gana and the
Directorate of Administration which was led by Alhaji Aliyu Modibbo. There were
also zonal and state directors of the Presidential Campaign Organization in all
the zones and states of the country. All these names that I have mentioned
including all the other directors whose names I have not mentioned are, as far
as I am aware, men and women of immense integrity and good character and they
have mostly been either ministers of the Federal Republic or state governors at
one time or the other in our history. It was an honour to serve alongside such
people and I have absolutely no regrets about doing so.
Yet given the fact that I was not the
only director in the campaign organization and in view of the fact that all the
directors and zonal and state directors got their funds from the same source
and account as I did, one wonders why only I and three others should be singled
out for this reprehensible treatment and these false allegations.
I chose to remain silent on the issue
until now simply because the allegations have not been officially made by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or anyone else, but the
newspapers keep citing their sources inside the EFCC as their basis for these
shameful allegations.
Mr. Josef Goebbels, Chancellor Adolf
Hitler’s information minister, when Germany was in the terrible grip of the
Nazi party, said that once a lie is repeated enough times, it becomes truth to
those who are continuously subjected to it. This is especially so if it goes
unchallenged. The former Aviation minister however dared the anti-graft agency
to do its worst. Yet if this is an attempt to intimidate, silence or distract
me, they shall fail because I am not a coward and I do not fear them or those
that sent them to torment me.
As long as Jesus is on the throne and
our hands are clean, no matter how long it takes, we shall prevail and
ultimately they will pay a heavy price for their malice, injustice and
wickedness. These are facts and readers can be rest assured that I will say
nothing different from this if and when I am formally asked by anyone or any
agency. When the EFCC begins to leak their falsehood and salacious allegations
to their agents in the media, kindly take note of the fact that, as usual, they
will be telling tall tales and they will be lying.
Now I challenge them to do their
worse. I have no fear of them or of those who have sent them to do this dirty
job. May God judge them all and may He reward them for their wickedness. The
suggestion that the money was some kind of cash bonanza or bazaar as has been
reported by the leading pro-government newspaper in the country today is
childish and absurd. If that had been the case, I doubt that I would have been
foolish enough to open a bank account to receive government funds or bazaar
funds as this would have been easily traced. If I had anything to hide or if I
was doing anything wrong, I would have insisted on collecting cash for my
operations which would have been far easier to conceal.
He added that the fact that the EFCC
gained access to my bank account and leaked details of it to the media,
including my inflows, is not only a gross violation of my privacy, but it is
also unlawful.
Read more at http://www.theheraldng.com/
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