Name N750m bribe takers, PDP dares EFCC

 Chief Femi Fani-Kayode

The Director of Media and Publicity of the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organisation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has vowed to defend the corruption allegation against him.

Also, the national leadership of the PDP has urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to be diligent in the party’s investigation of the allegation that some members of its National Working Committee collected a whopping N750m bribe from Mr. Ndudi Elumelu.

Elumelu, a PDP governorship aspirant in Delta State, had alleged that the money was collected from him with a promise that he would be given the party’s governorship ticket in the state.

But speaking on the matter, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Olisa Metuh, said the EFCC must be able to unravel those who collected the money.

He said, “If any member of this party participated in the issue, let the law takes its course. Let the EFCC charge those involved to court. We will not tolerate anyone who is corrupt. Monies were paid into an account at least with what I have read in some newspapers.

“That is a concrete evidence. Let the EFCC use that to trace how the money was disbursed. The law enforcement should act on this.”

Also, Fani-Kayode, while reacting to allegation made by a Lagos lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo, that the former minister was not qualified to be in the President Jonathan Goodluck’s campaign team because of the fraud case, said he was ready to prove his innocence in the graft suit.

Kayode is currently being prosecuted by the EFCC for alleged corruption while in office.

Keyamo, who is the prosecutor in the matter, said with Fani-Kayode’s appointment, President Jonathan had shown that he was not interested in fighting corruption.

He, therefore, asked Nigerians to reject Jonathan during the February 14 presidential election.

But in his reaction in Abuja on Monday, Fani-Kayode in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Sufuyan Ojeifo, said he was waiting for the next adjourned date of his trial to clear himself.

Ojeifo said, “They initially claimed that he (Fani-Kayode) stole N19.5bn of the Aviation Intervention Fund but this was thrown out by the courts for want of evidence.

“After that, in 2008, Keyamo filed a bogus 47-count money laundering on behalf of the Farida Waziri-led EFCC in which he claimed that Chief Fani-Kayode had laundered N200m.

“In 2014, he reduced it to a 40-count charge and reduced the amount that was allegedly laundered from N200m to N99m. Earlier this year, 38 of those 40 counts, which collectively represented N97m, were thrown out by the court for want of evidence.

“The remaining two counts, which represent N1m each, will be defended on February 23rd and 24th. Chief Fani-Kayode looks forward to that date because he is innocent and he has every confidence in God and the Nigerian judiciary.”

He said that what people like Keyamo failed to appreciate was that the days of prosecuting people on the pages of newspapers without any hard evidence and trying to intimidate innocent people with the EFCC were long over.

On the one month suspension slammed on the former National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur by the party, Metuh said that he was now free to participate in the PDP’s activities.