BY JOHN ONAH, Abuja
A Chieftain of the leading opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Kassim Afegbua said he stood by his earlier petition to Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent and Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over the misappropriation of N10 billion by the leadership of his party.
Addressing Newsmen in Abuja Wednesday, Afegbua said despite denials by the party Publicist, he still stand on his initial figure of N10 billion naira being money generated from sales of forms for Presidential, Gubernatorial, Senatorial, House of Representatives and Houses of Assembly elections in 2019 as well as donations.
According to him, as a Citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who has advocated for the emancipation of the rule of law and democracy in different forums, he feel obliged to stress the important of transparency, openness accountability and probity in management of public finances by persons appointed and elected to represent any public institution.
“Without fear of contradiction, I am aware that the party’s leadership has been involved in money laundering for failure to follow what the law proscribes. Having consulted with my lawyers, I wish to state more emphatically that any monetary transaction that is above the threshold of 10 million naira must pass through financial institution for ease of tracing and monitoring .and such account mus be the ones owned by the party and not that of persons or group of person purport to act on behalf of the party”, he said.
He maintained that for the party to have confessed that it realized N4.6 billion as opposed to N10 billion means that there is progression.
He reminded the leadership of the party on the need to volunteer the EFCC and ICPC such information, once the investigation begins, to assist the agencies to arrive at a holistic conclusion.
“I am calling on EFCC and ICPC to take judicious note on the following account numbers and companies, Morufu Nigeria Limited, Retrobox Nigeria Limited with account number 0019723825, GTB and Abdullahi Kabiru (UBA) 2065267084, which were alleged used as conduit to launder money against the run of the play”.
“The above companies need to be properly scrutinized by the anti-graft agencies to establish the role the play in the financial flow of PDP finances, with respect to the sale of nomination forms during the last general elections in 2019.
He disclosed that upon the submission of the petition to EFCC and ICPC, he has been inundated with several telephone calls by party Chieftains, pundits and lackeys alike with a mixed grill.
However, Afegbua said he has instructed his Lawyers, Kayode Ajulo and Co. Castle of law, to petition the Inspector General of Police on the serious threat.