*Refund doesn’t prevent prosecution, Magu says
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) confirmed on Monday that it has retrieved N100 million out of the N170 million traced to the account of the former Military Administrator of Kaduna State Jafaru Isah.
Chairman of the EFCC Ibrahim Magu confirmed the retrieval of the cash from Isah, adding that it was the partial refund that informed his administrative bail to enable him to go and source for the balance.
Magu, who made the disclosure in response to criticism that he quickly released the APC chieftain and close associate of President Buhari while holding onto Olisa Metuh of the opposition PDP, said that the refund was not a guarantee that the suspect would not be prosecuted for receiving public funds illegally.
There has been a furore over the ‘sudden’ release of Isah from EFCC custody while other suspects duly granted bail by the courts, are still being held by the anti-graft agency.
The opposition PDP believes its key figures, who received huge cash from the office of the former National Security Adviser and are being detained by the EFCC, are being persecuted notwithstanding their admission that they indeed, received the said cash for election purposes.
But in the case of Jafaru Isah, the amount of N170 million traced to him is said to have been paid by the ex-NSA Sambo Dasuki, to enable him to acquire a property in Kano State for him.
The deal, it was gathered did not go through, as a member of the Jonathan cabinet paid a higher amount of money for the same building which Isah was billed to buy for Dasuki.
Isah, who was arrested by the EFCC last week, is said to be a close friend of Dasuki and a political associate of President Buhari, although Buhari did not know about the N170 million deal with Dasuki.
The Presidency immediately distanced itself from Isah upon his arrest, making it clear that it would not interfere in his prosecution by the EFCC.
I won’t return N100m – Olu Falae
….Asks FG to hold Anenih responsible
The National Chairman of Social Democratic Party, Chief Olu Falae, Monday, said he would not refund the N100 million he collected from Chief Tony Anenih, which has been alleged to have come from the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki.
Falae explained that the amount was given to him for onward delivery to his party, to assist sell ex-president Goodluck Jonathan’s second term bid, saying it was not paid through the office of the former NSA.
To this end, he has asked the government to hold Anenih, former Board of Trustees of the PDP, the source of the money rather than either himself or his party.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja, through the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Dr. Abdul Ahmed Isaiq, Falae insisted that his party would not return any money to the government coffers, since the money it got was neither from Col. Dasuki nor Office of the National Security Adviser.
He explained that the money was as a result of electoral alliance his party entered into with the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party, to deliver Jonathan in his re-election quest.
He said those who were returning money to the government were those who got money directly from the Office of the former NSA, saying he cannot be part, since he did not get the money from Dasuki or the office he was occupying.
“In terms of refund of money, I want to say here that those people who are refunding money are those who got their money directly from the arms deal fund.
“Our fund did not come from the arms deal, our fund came from an electoral alliance with the PDP and we knew that the PDP had a fund raising committee that gathered billions of naira and PDP had been in government for 16 years.
” So, with that, we knew that the PDP had the capacity to fund the alliance that was formed with them by the SDP,” he explained.
“You don’t postulate what you don’t have on the ground, you can’t build on a non-foundation.
“We, as a political party knew that PDP was a capable hand in the electoral alliance which we entered with them. And we equally knew that the PDP had a fund-raising, where it generated over N20 billion down.
“So, whether the money came from Col. Sambo Dasuki or his office, is what we don’t know and it is left for them to ask Chief Tony Anenih to explain,” he added.
He emphasized: “We knew that the PDP had been ruling Nigeria for 16 years. So, this was the basis of our electoral alliance with them.
“We can’t refund any money to anybody because the money we got as a party came because of the alliance we had with the PDP and we have the agreement note from this alliance.
“If it is possible that the money Chief Anenih gave us was from the arms deal, it is left for them to ask Chief Anenih to clarify. As far as we knew, we did not have any dealing with Dasuki.
”Our office did not ever have anything to do with the office or person of the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki. ”
Dr Abdul explained that prior to the 2015 presidential election, SDP was approached by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP through its BOT chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, for electoral alliance for the re-election bid of Jonathan.
-Vanguard