Arms scam: EFCC probes Jonathan’s campaign fund

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
has extended its investigation into the arms
procurement scandal to the 2015 presidential
campaign funds of former President Goodluck
Jonathan.
Punch reliably gathered on Saturday that the
latest move was as a result of fresh discoveries
that more chieftains of the party got funds from
the office of the National Security Adviser,
specifically for the Peoples Democratic Party’s
presidential campaign.
A former Minister of State for Finance,
Ambassador Bashir Yuguda, was reported to have
given N600m to six chairmen of the contact and
mobilization committee of the PDP in the 2015
elections.
He was reported to have listed George (South-
West); Yerima Abdulahi (North-East); Peter Odili
(South-South); and Attahiru Bafarawa (North-
West) as beneficiaries of the funds. Yuguda, in a
statement made to the EFCC, said the money was
for the 2015 general elections. Bafarawa, a
former Governor of Sokoto State, has since
admitted receiving N100m.
But George, a former Deputy National Chairman
of the PDP, denied reports that he had collected
N100m from Dasuki.
A top official of the EFCC, who confided in one of
Punch’s correspondents, however said that
despite the denials and ‘half truths’ by some of
the suspects, findings by the commission showed
that other sums, apart from the initial N600m,
were diverted into the campaign fund from the
NSA office.
He said, “The commission is looking into the
funding of the presidential campaign of the
former president. Some of the money that was
spent came from the NSA office.
“We have been looking into the bank accounts of
those involved in the PDP campaign fund and
more names will be revealed in the coming
weeks. Yuguda was not the only person that
shared the campaign funds and the money
involved was more than N600m.There are strong
links between the campaign fund and the NSA’s
office.”