\nThe Spokesperson for the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said this in a text message sent to Punch Correspondent on Friday.
\nThe petitioner, Bako Waziri Kyari, who claimed to be a nephew to the chief of staff had said during a popular radio programme, Berekete Family, on Human Rights Radio 101.1FM in Abuja, that Kyari and Sani Ado, whom he claimed worked with the Bureau of Public Procurement, allegedly collected N29.9m from him in order to facilitate the award of a contract.
\nThe petitioner said he had written a petition to the EFCC but the commission refused to treat it, insisting that it could not investigate the President\u2019s aide.
\nIn his reaction, however, the EFCC spokesperson said, \u201cThe petition by Bako Waziri is being investigated by the commission. Any serious investigation takes time and it is presumptuous to conclude that the EFCC is non-committal simply because you did not receive instant result. This is how investigations are done.\u201d
\nBako, who is from Bama in Borno State, told Berekete Family that when he lost his father, Kyari came to commiserate with the family and then promised him the contract.
\nHe said on getting to Abuja, he met with Kyari at Caledonia Hotel, Maitama, four times.
\nBako alleged that Kyari asked him to pay Ado some money to facilitate the award of the contract.
\nHe said he approached a friend who lent him some money, adding that he also sold his properties in order to raise N29.9m which he used in facilitating the contract.
\nSpeaking through an interpreter, he said, \u201cAbba Kyari asked if I had a company registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission. I told him I did and so he asked me to come down to Abuja. We met at least four times at Caledonia Hotel on Gana Street, Maitama. We discussed there. The hotel should have CCTV and this can be confirmed.
\n\u201cAbba Kyari collected the documents of my company. He said I would supply 15 Toyota Hilux vehicles to the Presidential Villa. He gave me an agreement to sign and I signed two documents. He collected two letterheads from me, 12 passport photos and introduced me to Sani Ado and Alhaji Ibrahim.
\n\u201cHe said anytime they needed money, he would let me know so that I could give the money to Sani Ado. Ado began collecting money from me to process the contract. Before depositing money into Ado\u2019s account, I always alerted Abba Kyari and he would tell me to go ahead.
\n\u201cAll the money I transferred to Ado summed up to N29, 950,000. The total contract was worth N300,725,000. They promised me 30 per cent profit of the total contract which is about N94m.\u201d
\nThe petitioner said Ado called him later to tell him that the money had been paid.
\nBako, however, said he never received the funds as Ado continued to give him flimsy excuses.
\nHe said he got frustrated and then wrote a petition to the EFCC.
\nThe petitioner, however, said he was disappointed by the response of the EFCC.
\nHe added, \u201cSome officials loyal to Abba Kyari refused to help me. I went to meet an official petitioner at Block C in the EFCC. He is very close to the acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu. The official asked me to bring the petition to him but by the time I got there, he had called Kyari to inform him of my presence.
\n\u201cAbba Kyari called me on the phone to tell me that he knew I was at the EFCC.\u201d
\nBako said he quickly changed his mind and decided not to use the EFCC any longer. He, however, said friends from whom he borrowed money began to pester him.
\nHe said a friend decided to report him to a policeman, DSP Tijjani Bulama.
\nThe petitioner said he explained the matter to Bulama and even gave him Abba Kyari\u2019s number to prove that he was telling the truth.
\nBako said Kyari promised to return the money in a few days but never did.
\nHe added, \u201cThe policeman threatened to make the matter public, but the following day, men of the DSS stormed Tijani\u2019s home and arrested him.
\n\u201cWhile in detention, the policeman under duress, called me, asking me to meet him at Eagle Square. On getting there, men of the DSS arrested me and took me to their office. The DSS men asked if we had informed anyone and we said no.
\n\u201cThey took our statements and Abba Kyari later came to the DSS. He, however, refused to speak to me. The DSS officials forced me to lie that I gave the policeman N250,000 to blackmail Abba Kyari but I refused. So they detained me for two weeks while the policeman was detained for a month.\u201d
\nHe said it was Kyari that asked the DSS to release him and promised that the matter was a family one and would be resolved internally.
\nThe petitioner said he waited for another seven months but Kyari never paid him his money.
\nBako said he decided to approach the EFCC a second time but through another official, Nura Buhari.
\nHe added, \u201cNura Buhari then told me that if I wanted my petition to be attended to, I must remove Abba Kyari\u2019s name. So, I removed Abba Kyari\u2019s name and put only Ado.
\n\u201cBashir instructed that the investigation must not include Abba Kyari. They took my statement at Block B but moments later, Abba Kyari called me again. When I picked up, Kyari told me he was told that I was at the EFCC but I denied being there.
\n\u201cAll of them at the EFCC began to feel intimidated. Even Magu is afraid of touching the case file.\u201d
\nAlso speaking, the policeman who was detained by the DSS, described the entire incident as a case of fraud.
\nTijani, who spoke amid tears, said the DSS officials arrested him in the presence of his children and harassed his entire household.
\nHe said, \u201cInitially I didn\u2019t believe. I thought it was a fraudster impersonating the chief of staff. I called Ado and he said it was the chief of staff that asked him to collect the money. When I called the chief of staff, he denied it and said it was a mix up.
\n\u201cThe next day, I sent a text to Ado telling him that the matter would be made public if he did not repay the money. Before I knew it, armed DSS officials in 10 vehicles stormed my home in PENGASSAN Estate, Lokogoma, and arrested me. They didn\u2019t even allow me wear my shoes. It was on March 27, 2017, there were eyewitnesses there.
\n\u201cThey blindfolded me. My child was even crying in the house and they even pushed the little boy to the floor. It was at that point I realised that it was the chief of staff\u2019s handiwork. Even the IG would not send the DSS to my house. I knew that only someone as powerful as Abba Kyari could do such.\u201d
\nThe deputy superintendent said he was brought before the then DG, Lawal Daura.
\nHe added, \u201cDaura said, \u2018you are the one trying to intimidate the chief of staff, you want to become a whistleblower\u2019. When I asked if it was true that Abba Kyari duped the man, he asked me to get out of his office.\u201d
\nTijani said he was treated as a common criminal and made to sit on the bare floor.
\nAttempts to speak with Ado on Friday proved abortive as his telephone line indicated that it was switched off while a text message was not responded to.
\nPresidency source denies allegation
\nA presidential source, who denied the allegations levelled against the President\u2019s Chief of Staff, said the President\u2019s top aide would not want to engage the accuser in the media.
\nThe source who said he did not have the authority of the Chief of Staff to speak on the matter, said, \u201cI want you to use your discretion to determine if the story is worth publishing.
\n\u201cThe Chief of Staff will prefer to take up any libelous publication in court.\u201d
\nEfforts made to get the spokesman for the DSS, Mr. Nnochirionye Afunanya, failed as calls made to his telephone indicated that it was switched off. A text message sent to the same line also did not deliver.
\nNo Sani Ado in BPP \u2013 Spokesman
\nWhen contacted, the Spokesperson for the BPP, Mr. Segun Imohiosen, said the bureau did not have any member of staff with the name Sani Ado.
\nHe said, \u201cThanks for reverting to the bureau before going public. Unfortunately, we don\u2019t have any officer in the Bureau by the name Sani Ado. So, issue of collusion in procurement does not even arise.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Presidency taken strong offence at a story making the rounds that President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, was involved In a contract scam in which his nephew was defrauded to the tune of over N29 million. In a statement, Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu said it was “improbable and outlandish publication by Punch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":11781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}