The presidency has dispelled rumours that it paid the Martin Luther King family $3 million to get the award presented by some members of the MLK family earlier this week.
The delegation of MLK family members led by 86-year-old Naomi Barbara-King presented the award in commemoration of the Black History Month and for the president’s fight against corruption.
The award elicited controversy among Nigerians who said money exchanged hands after a member of the delegation, Isaac Newton-Farris, urged Nigerians to give the president a second term in 2019.
But in an interview with The Punch, the Special Adviser to the President on Diaspora, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, denied the bribery allegation.
The latest denial comes days after a Thursday statement by her spokesman, Abdulrahman Bello, denying the allegation.
She said, “To say the least , nothing would surprise me in politics . When I first heard the rumour that the Presidency paid $ 3 m to get the award , I laughed . That accusation shows crass ignorance. Is it possible that President Muhammadu Buhari would give out $ 3 . 5 m to obtain an award?
It is also a lie that the award was facilitated by me through a Ghanaian diplomat called Dr . Erieka Bennett . Linking Bennett to the matriarch of MLK , Naomi Barbara King , is also crass ignorance. Bennett is a respectable woman who just met Barbara King in Abuja this month; they had never met before . They all came for black history month festival. Bennett heads the first Diaspora mission recognised by the African Union . They want to find out why the tweet will come out of that centre anyway . They said they would sort that out. So , for somebody to sit in his room and concoct a lie is disgraceful.”
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