A new twist to the $2.1 billion fraudulent arms deal saga has fingered President Buhari's aide, Femi Adesina to have received the sum of N50m from the the past government.
Chairman and editor-in-chief of Thisday newspaper, Nduka Obaigbena, on Monday revealed that the Nigerian Guild of Editors collected N50 million from the Office of the National Security Adviser, in a further widening of the arms purchase scandal, according to Premium Times.
Special adviser to President Muhamamdu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina was the President of Nigerian Guild of Editors at the time.
The money, it was gathered, was Jonathan's donation to the guild in their new secretariat building project.
In his letter to the EFCC, Mr. Obaigbena explained that it was not only his company and NPAN that received funds from the ONSA, saying the NGE also received money for its secretariat complex.
While Nigerian Guild of Editors has called for the probe of the arms procurement scam, the NPAN president indicated that the editors also collected N50 million cash from Mr. Dasuki’s office.
“Even when he (Dasuki’s aide) suggested that The Nigerian Guild of Editors – NGE – who are now calling for a probe – was paid N50,000,000 cash by the ONSA when President Jonathan donated to the building of the NGE secretariat, I still refused to collect cash,” Mr. Obaigbena said.
Mr. Obaigbena, who is also the president of Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria, NPA, stated this in a letter to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, dated December 30, 2015.
The EFCC had last December invited the NPAN president in connection with the ongoing probe into the $2.1 billion arms procurement fund allegedly misappropriated by the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.
Mr. Dasuki, alongside some top officials of the Peoples Democratic Party, and other former senior officials are currently being investigated for allegedly receiving the arms fund.