Elder statesman and former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Tony Anenih has said that he is not in the position to refund the N260m he received from the Office of the National Security Adviser in pursuance of former President Goodluck Jonathan's second term ambition.
THE NATION reports that Anenih said on the contrary that the former president left him with “a balance of over N180 million as bad debt”, which he (Anenih) incurred to have him returned to office in last year's presidential election.
In a letter to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the veteran politician said that he spent over N440m of his personal funds on Jonathan’s reelection campaigns and can therefore not be expected to return any money to government.
Anenih's list of “some out-of-pocket disbursements made on the instructions of the former president” includes N25 million to former Deputy Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Muktari Shagari, and N35 million to a delegation of Local Government leaders from Katsina State.
“On the instruction of the former president, the BoT embarked on a nationwide tour to reconcile aggrieved and feuding members of the PDP,” he said.
He also said that monies he “spent on hiring small jets during the tour” were not refunded to him.
Anenih said that most of the expenditures were on the instructions of Jonathan for special political assignments, adding that only N260 million was refunded to him by the former president, “leaving a balance of over N180 million as bad debt.
In his letter to the EFCC, Anenih said that he “only provided his account details to the former president on request for a refund of the money spent.
“I was not in a position to ask the former president how he was going to source the fund or through which office the refund was going to be made.
“I was not a direct beneficiary of the sum of N260 million that was a part refund of the money I spent on the president’s instructions.
“N63 million was disbursed to a northern group led by elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, for mobilisation and post election peace advocacy in that part of the country.
“N100 million was given to the National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Chief Olu Falae, to enable the party mobilise support and votes for the PDP presidential candidate since the SDP did not have a candidate for the election.
“N100 million was disbursed to the Leader of ACCORD party, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, to also enable the party to support and mobilize voters for the PDP candidate.
” Yakassai, Falae and Ladoja have all confirmed that they received the stated amounts from Anenih.
“The total of these three disbursements is already N3m more that the N260 million refund.”
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