FORMER Minister of Aviation and Director of Publicity of the defunct Goodluck/Sambo Presidential Campaign Organisation (PCO), Femi Fani-Kayode, has rejected an allegation that he was being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as well as the Department of State Services (DSS) over N1.7 billion he allegedly collected from the government of President Goodluck Jonathan.In a statement he released to the media, on Wednesday, he said he was amused by the allegation published by an online medium.
He said it was false and noted that following its first publication of the allegation, the online medium had subsequently modified it to say that he collected the cash from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) under Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retd).
He explained: “I have never received one kobo from President Jonathan himself, Colonel Dasuki or any other member of President Jonathan’s government. I have never been in receipt of any public funds and neither was I the beneficiary of any payments in cash, transfer, cheque or otherwise from any government official during the tenure of President Jonathan.
“As Director of Media and Publicity of the Jonathan/Sambo Campaign organisation, I received money on behalf of the Directorate of Media and Publicity which I headed from private individuals and companies during the election campaigns but these were not public funds but rather private contributions specifically for the presidential and other campaigns.
“Such moneys were transferred into my account by the Director of Finance of the Presidential Campaign Organisation and that account was specifically set up for the purpose of running the publicity and media aspect of the campaign for the whole country and my directorate.
“These private individuals and companies paid their contributions into a designated account which was provided and controlled by the Director of Finance and from there she transferred it to the accounts of the various Directors and various individuals that were running for public office that the PCO supported.
“The money that was sent to me for my Directorate by the Director of Finance was used in a lawful and responsible manner and by the time the campaigns were over my Directorate had paid all of its bills for services rendered and was not owing any media house or anyone else one kobo.”
While noting that the private individuals and organisations that supported the PCO were within their rights to do so, Fani-Kayode emphasised that “not one kobo of public funds was spent by or given to my directorate during the campaign and as far as I am aware not one kobo of public funds was spent by or given to the PCO.”
He said it was usual for presidential campaign organisations to spend money given the capital intensive nature of such campaigns.
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