In what appears to be a twist to the lingering
controversy over the propriety or otherwise of
the investigation into the $2.1 billion arms
scandal linked to the campaign activities of
the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the
2015 general elections, the Chairman of the
Northern Elders Forum, NEF, Alhaji Tanko
Yakassai, has released the details of how his
group expended the N53m disbursed to it in
tranches for the elections.
The NEF Chairman confirmed that a former
Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT),
Chief Tony Anenih, spent his money on the
assignment on the instruction of then
President Goodluck Jonathan . The former
presidential adviser told Sunday Vanguard, in
an exclusive chat, that he was making the
details available to the world to correct the
information in the public domain that the
funds made available to his group were part
of the $2.1 billion arms money.
Indeed, many PDP leaders are questioning the
propriety of the conclusions of the
investigation into the activities in the Office of
the National Security Adviser, ONSA, which
claimed that some individuals received funds
without contracts or that contracts were
awarded without documentation or that some
of the contracts awarded were bogus. Names
of those who allegedly collected funds from
the ONSA have already been published.
It is against this backdrop – just as Anenih
had made it clear that he was not in a
position to ask President Jonathan where
funds for the repayment of campaign costs he
had incurred would come from – that
Yakassai gave an activity-by-activity
breakdown of the expenditure.
In fact, the breakdown of the expenditure
profile by the Yakassai group indicated that
there is an outstanding balance of N16 million
to be claimed.
Yakassai, who made the document of the
breakdown available to Sunday Vanguard,
revealed thus:
“Please find below full statement of the
expenses incurred during our tour of 17
northern states and the FCT, sponsored by
Chief Tony Anenih, on the directive of former
President Goodluck Jonathan from January 14
to February 14, 2015”.
According to Yakassai, “States visited were
Sokoto, Kebbi, Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa,
Zamfara, Katsina, Nasarawa, Kogi, Niger,
Ilorin, BenueBenue, Plateau, Adamawa, Taraba,
Bauchi and Gombe”.
He identified members of his team as Alhaji
Sule Iyaji; Senator Abubakar D. Sodangi;
Ambassador M.Z. Anka; Chief John Mankilik;
Alhaji Sulaiman Lawal; Dr. Luka Bahago; and
Barrister Bitrus Gwadah, Personal Assistant,
with himself as team leader.
The elder statesman said members’ allowance
@ N250,000 for eight members for 21 days
came to N42,000,000.
He disclosed that return tickets for Abuja-
Sokoto, Abuja-Kano, Abuja-Ilorin, Abuja-Yola/
Jallingo Abuja-Bauchi/Gombe plane trips were
at a cost of N50,000 and the total came to
N2,250,000.
Yakassai put hotel accommodation of
N30,000 per night for nine persons for five
nights.
The elder statesman further said payments to
personal assistants was N20,000 per person,
while the Christian Association of Nigeria,
CAN, delegation from Plateau State, which
visited Anenih, got N2,000,000.
By the standards of those involved, Yakassai
suggested that the expenditure pattern was
modest.
However, like the former PDP BoT Chairman
said of the outstanding funds yet to be paid
to him, the NEF Chairman put the outstanding
claims for his assisgnment at N16,850,000.
The breakdown for this, according to Yakassai,
is as follows: Car hire for seven persons for 25
days at N50,000 totals N8,750,000,
accommodation at other places N6,000,000
and Plateau Special Delegation got
N2,100,000.
He said the idea behind the release of the
details of the expenses of his committee was
“just for the record”.
Already, tongues are wagging regarding the
intention behind the names published as co-
conspirators in the arms scandal as some
PDP leaders insist that funds allocated to
them were for campaign purposes and no one
asked where the funds were being sourced
from.
Source: www.vanguardngr.com/2016/04/2-1-billion-arms-scandal-how-we-spent-money-by-northern-elders/

The worst thing that can happen to a country is to have bad leaders.

Only in this country

What of the one that thry are sharing now, who is keeping track of it

are they trying to justify the money they squandered for bad governance?

return your ill-gotten wealth