Fani-Kayode cries out over frozen account, says EFCC action illegal

A former Aviation Minister and Director of Media and Publicity for the Janothan/Sambo Presidential Campaign, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, has cried out over the freezing of his bank account by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, describing the action as illegal.

Fani-Kayode, who is among those being investigated by the EFCC over a N4 billion campaign fund allegedly withdrawn from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, decried what he termed media trial by the anti-graft agency and alleging that it is being used by people who want to drag him down by all means on account of his unrelenting opposition to the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

In a statement titled “The Money Transfers and the Truth about the Presidential Campaign Funds, released in Abuja on Friday, Fani-Kayode, who dared the EFCC to do their worst, said he knew nothing about the withdrawal of the cash from the CBN or funding of the campaign by the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, rtd.

Though he admitted that campaign funds were paid into the account of a company linked with a former Minister of Finance, Mrs. Nenadi Usman, from where it was shared to him and others, Fani-Kayode the legality of the action of the EFCC.

“The fact that the EFCC gained access to my bank account and leaked details of it to the media, including my inflows, is not only a gross violation of my privacy, but it is also unlawful.

“The fact that the EFCC gained access to my bank account and leaked details of it to the media, including my inflows, is not only a gross violation of my privacy, but it is also unlawful.

“The fact that my bank account was frozen on the orders of the EFCC two weeks ago without any explanation is proof of the fact that I am being targeted and that those that seek to have their wicked way with me are about to pounce.

“Given this, it is important that all the relevant facts are put before the world before I am subjected to the Dasuki treatment, put away indefinitely and not given the opportunity to defend myself before the public. Meanwhile, in their usual manner, after this is done, the EFCC will then flood the media with all manner of lies about my so-called atrocities which only exist in the figment of their imagination.

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“The allegation of fraud and the receipt of public funds from the National Security Adviser’s Office and Central Bank into my bank account are false.

“These allegations are baseless, wicked, shameful and irresponsible. It is not true that any money was paid into my account by or from the National Security Adviser’s Office, the Central Bank of Nigeria or any other government agency or institution last year or at any other time.”

Fani-Kayode also queried why the EFCC has singled him out of all the Directors, Zonal and State Coordinators of the Jonathan/Sambo Presidential Campaign as the subject of “absurd and outlandish headline stories in various newspapers which have accused him of being a fraudster and that funds were transferred into his bank account by the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, and by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Sending a message to the EFCC, the former minister said: “Yet if this is an attempt to intimidate, silence or distract me, they shall fail because I am not a coward and I do not fear them or those that sent them to torment me.

“These are facts and readers can be rest assured that I will say nothing different from this if and when I am formally asked by anyone or any agency.

“When the EFCC begins to leak their falsehood and salacious allegations to their agents in the media, kindly take note of the fact that, as usual, they will be telling tall tales and they will be lying.

“Now I challenge them to do their worse. I have no fear of them or of those who have sent them to do this dirty job. May God judge them all and may He reward them for their wickedness”, he said.

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