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- Accuses them of collecting N1.3bn
By Iheanacho Nwosu and James Ojo
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has uncovered more beneficiaries of an alleged N23 billion dispensed by former minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Deziani Allison-Madueke, for the 2015 presidential election.
A source at the antigraft commission said former diplomat, Hassan Adamu, erstwhile military administrator and chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Adamawa State, Col. Joel Madaki (retd) as well as Senator Sa’idu Umar Kumo of Gombe State were, yesterday, quizzed by the EFCC or allegedly collecting N900 million to work for former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The commission also interrogated former acting governor of Taraba State, Sani Danladi Abubakar, currently the senator representing Taraba North senatorial district in the National Assembly for collecting and supervising sharing of N450 million campaign cash.
According to the source, Kumo, a former national secretary of defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) admitted to EFCC that he signed and collected N450 milliom but said the money was meant to work for the re-election of Jonathan in 2015. Of the amount, Kumo told the commission that he only benefitted N2 million and expressed readiness to return his own share of the money.
Both Madaki, PDP chairman in Adamawa State and Adamu (Wakili Adamawa), signed and
collected N450 milliom through Fidelity Bank and shared same among key political leaders in
the state.
Madaki, in his statement to the EFCC, pledged to return N5 million, which, he said, was
his own share of the campaign cash.
Giving details of the interrogation of the former acting governor of Taraba State, the source said
Abubakar admitted he collected N450 million in the company of a former speaker of the state.
The former acting governor told the commission that former minister of labour and productivity, Senator Joel Ikenya Danlami and former speaker of the state’s House of Assembly, Mark Bako Useni, were also beneficiaries of the campaign fund.
Another EFCC source disclosed that investigations confirmed that the trio actually collected and shared the N450 million.
He said the investigation also revealed that Ikenya and Mark Useni signed and collected the money from Fidelity Bank on behalf of the state before proceeding to the Government House to distribute the fund. The source equally disclosed that the accused, during interrogation, claimed that they distributed the money to the 16 local government areas of the State.
The men said they gave N28 million each to five local government areas, while N264 million went to the remaining local government areas.
However, the source said Useni admitted he collected Takum local government’s fund of N24 million.
He further said the trio confessed to have personally benefited individually from the fund.
EFCC has continued the manhunt of alleged beneficiaries of the controversial N23 billion Deziani campaign cash.
