Dasukigate: More controversies trail Falae’s N100m

The controversies surrounding the N100m collected by the National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Chief Olu Falae, seem to be growing by the day, as the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation,  SGF,  vowed on Monday not to return money to anybody, while the Ogun State chapter of the party also dissociated itself from the money, adding that Falae is on his own.

Chief Tony Anenih, the former chairman of the Board of Trustees, BoT,  of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had named Falae as one of the people he shared the money he got from the embattled former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.

The money is alledgely from the controversial $2.1 arms procurement money.

Falae stated this on Monday at a press briefing addressed by the National Publicity Secretary of the SDP in Abuja, explaining that the money was giving to party because of the electoral alliance to which his party entered into with the PDP to deliver Jonathan’s re-election quest.

He also contended that those who were returning money to the government were those who got money directly from the ONSA, insisting that he did not get the money from Dasuki or the office he was occupying.

Falae said: “In terms of refund of money, I want to say here that those people who are refunding money are those who got their money directly from the arms fund. Our funds did not come from the arms deal; our funds came from an electoral alliance with the PDP and we knew that the PDP had a fund-raising committee that gathered billions of naira and the PDP had been in government for 16 years.

“So, with that, we knew that the PDP had the capacity to fund the alliance that was formed with them by the SDP.

“You don’t postulate what you don’t have on the ground, you can’t build on a non-foundation.

“We, as a political party, knew that the PDP was a capable hand in the electoral alliance which we entered into. And we equally knew that the PDP had a fund-raising dinner, where it generated over N20bn. So, whether the money came from Col. Sambo Dasuki or his office, is what we don’t know and it is left for them to ask Chief Tony Anenih to explain.

“We knew that the PDP had been ruling Nigeria for 16 years. So, this was the basis for our electoral alliance with them. We can’t refund any money to anybody because the money we got as a party came because of the alliance we had with the PDP and we have an agreement note for this alliance.

“If it is possible that the money Chief Anenih gave us was from the arms deal, it is left for them to ask Chief Anenih to clarify. As far as we know, we did not have any dealing with Dasuki. Our office did not ever have anything to do with the office or person of the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki.”

Earlier, the Ogun State chapter of the party, in a statement on Sunday jointly signed by the state Chairman, Chief Olu Agemo, and the Secretary, Clement Adeniyi, said Falae was on his own over the issue.

“We were never notified of or involved in any negotiation to partner the Peoples Democratic Party or any other party for the purpose of winning the election or maintaining peace during the period, as claimed by Falae.

“The party was never informed by the national secretariat of the party of the decision to adopt former President Goodluck Jonathan or any other candidate as the party’s presidential candidate.”

The state chapter of the party also contended that it was never informed of any donation of funds to the party by the PDP or any other party and that it did not receive any financial or campaign logistics in form of assistance from the national secretariat of the party or any of its principal officers.

Falae’s position came just as the Economic and financial Crimes Commission,  EFCC, issued a directive to all those who received money from the former NSA to return such monies or face prosecution.

An EFCC source disclosed that the anti-graft agency decided on the refund of the money after retrieving memos Dasuki wrote to former President Goodluck Jonathan to request for funds, adding that none of them said anything about funding for political activities.

“We have conducted a thorough investigation and we have retrieved some of the memos sent to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan by the former National Security Adviser; none of them indicated that the cash should be for political purposes.

“There was never a memo for cash advance for political matters like campaign or election.

“We have also traced some of these funds directly to the accounts of these bigwigs or their proxy companies.

“Having gone far, we are asking them to return these funds or else, we will go after them any moment from now. I think they should respect themselves and make urgent refund.

“In the alternative, we will arrest them and arraign them in court to defend such strange allocations.

“We will retrieve every kobo given out from ONSA. It is insufficient to say somebody gave me this money. Once we trace undeserved public funds into your account or phony and proxy  companies, we will ask for refund.”

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