News broke yesterday that a sum of up to N3.145bn was transferred to the private accounts of a few members of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organization. Some of the notable names fingered included Chairman of the Social Democratic Party, Olu Falae and Famous Lawyer and PDP member Femi Fani Kayode.
The former has come out to deny receiving N100 million through his company account from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had on Monday, alleged that N100 million was traced to Marreco Limited- Falae’s company while N840million was traced to the account of Fani Kayode and some members of the PDP ahead of the last presidential election.
According to the EFCC, N3.145bn was transferred to the private accounts of some members of the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organisation.
Falae has fought against these claims branding them as a ‘falsehood’. He did this in a statement issued on Tuesday in Akure by the state Publicity Secretary of the SDP, Remi Olayiwola.
“The party and it’s national Chairman never had any business dealing or transaction whatsoever with either the CBN or the Joint trust Dimension Limited.”
“We wish to inform the general public that it is the same amount sent by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the SDP as a result of their inter-party agreement that is now being re-presented to the public through another dubious channel in order to portray Chief Falae and the SDP in bad light.”
“It is falsehood. It has failed in the past and it will fail again no matter how many times our detractors attempt to smear our name obviously for political reasons.”
“Chief Tony Anenih in his own statement has confirmed this transaction which was based on a written inter party agreement which existed between the two parties before the last Presidential election.”
“It is also a statement of fact that the national secretariat of the SDP has confirmed through a widely publicized Press Conference that the N100m was received in full by the party haaving remitted to the party account by Chief Olu Falae.”
“We strongly believe that this new story is yet another attempt aimed at further embarrassing Chief Falae and especially the SDP which the initiators now perceived to be towering in the Politics of Nigeria.”
“The EFCC at one point said that the N100million was from Dasuki, a lie which has now been effectively debunked. Now they are claiming that the money was from a company known as Joint Trust Dimension Nigeria Limited, an entity totally unknown to Chief Falae and the SDP.”
The EFCC have yet to fashion a response to this debunking.