The Director of Finance of the Goodluck Jonathan Organisation, Senator Nenadi Usman, has been interrrogated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for her alleged role in the N23bn ($115m) allegedly shared by the then Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, during the build-up to the 2015 presidential election.
The commission is said to have traced the payment of N1.85bn to two former governors and three senators from the Diezani funds including Usman who was director of finance of the Goodluck Jonathan Organisation.
Usman, who was quizzed at the Gombe zonal office on August 1, 2016, told the EFCC during interrogation that she met Diezani shortly before the election and the ex-minister issued her certain directives.
The anti-graft agency said, “The former DG, Nenadi, told the zonal office of the commission that Bauchi State got N500m through Senator Babayo Garba; Gombe State got N450m through Senator Saidu Kumo; Adamawa State got N450m through former governor James Ngilari while Taraba State collected the same N450m through the former acting governor of the state, Sani Danladi; and Senator Joel Ikenya.
“Usman admitted to the EFCC that she did not know the source of the funds as she claimed that Diezani collected the paper that contained the details of the amount but said she had reported to the head office of the EFCC in Abuja, Kano, Lagos and Gombe zonal offices of the commission to clarify how the multi-billion naira campaign bribe money was shared to the bigwigs of the PDP across the country.”
Usman has since been granted administrative bail by the Gombe zonal office of the commission pending the full investigation of the matter.
This is coming after the EFCC had last month arraigned Usman and a former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, on 17 counts of unlawful retention, unlawful use and unlawful payment of money to the tune of N4.9bn.