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GEJ’s CSO denies involvement in $6.9m scandal

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Gordon Obuah, the former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan, has washed his hands off the controversial mobile stage scandal involving $6.9 million.’

The deal allegedly involved ex-President Jonathan, Obuah and the former Minister for Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, who was said to have facilitated the payment of the money by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

Obuah had been arrested and later released by the men of the Department of State Security (DSS) over the deal.

He was alleged to have been the anchorman of the fraudulent financial deals as he was said to have initiated a memo to the former President Jonathan asking for the purchase of the three mobile stages.

But Obuah has denied initiating any memo for the purchase of the mobile stages, adding that his predicament was a media trial aimed at rubbishing him.

Read also: Buhari makes pledge on power supply

In a statement by his lawyer, Andrew Itsekiri, on Monday, the former CSO said he did not receive any amount of money for the construction of any stage for the former president neither was he the owner of any company producing such product.

Obuah , who asked the management NNPC to ‎ identify the person or the owner of the company to whom the purported money was paid, insisted that the allegation was a calculated attempts to tarnish his reputation.

“Our client did not know anything about the purported transactions. He did not initiate any memo to the then presidency. It is a mere cheap blackmail,” Itsekiri said.

”The authorities have a duty to dispel claims that the whole idea is to hurriedly charge him to court with no single shred of evidence to convict, with the expectation that his innocence can only be established years later, after his reputation would have been irredeemably dented before an unsuspecting public,” his lawyer said in the statement.

He therefore warned that the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari would be setting a dangerous precedent by deliberately subjecting innocent people to media trial, knowing clearly that the cases are seriously bereft of facts and evidence, linking such persons to the crimes advertised.

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