Former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, has dismissed the
allegations of money laundering leveled against him by a member of the
United Kingdom parliament.
The elder statesman condemned the claims in an interview with Channels
Television on Thursday, three days after the UK lawmaker, Tom Tugendhat,
accused him of looting half of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
He stated that it was disappointing that a British parliamentarian could
make such a statement without checking the facts.
“It is certainly surprising, and I am disappointed that a British
parliamentarian could make such a statement without checking the facts
of what he was saying.
“I honestly was disappointed that such a remark is made,” the former
Nigerian leader told Channels Television London correspondent via
telephone.
He insisted that there was no time when he was held or questioned for
money laundering, stressing that the allegation that he looted the
nation’s treasury was false.
General Gowon, who said he heard about the allegation from social media,
insisted that there was nothing to hide and the record was there for the
lawmaker and the British authorities to check.
He also called on the UK government to take the necessary step to order,
stressing that making an allegation of such was an insult to him and
Nigeria as a nation.
The former Head of State said, “The record of my service to the nation
is there for everybody to see and even the British government itself,
and I don’t know why somebody got the information to make such a very
ridiculous statement.
“I am disappointed with that one and I hope the British authority will
do something to rightly bring that parliamentarian to order to check his
facts before he makes such allegation because it is more or less an
insult to the leadership of Nigeria and certainly an insult to me to say
that I did something of the sort to take half of Nigeria’s Central Bank
and I must have put it in a British bank.”
“So, he should check all the British banks to see whether any such thing
has happened, and he (the UK lawmaker) will be surprised that I was not
being held for money laundering,” he added.
General Gowon, 86, served as the Head of State from 1966 to 1975.
Tugendhat had accused General Gowon and some other leaders in Nigeria of
robbing the people during a debate on a petition on #EndSARS at the UK
parliament.
He also alleged that the leaders ran to London to hide the loots, adding
that British banks were used for illegal transfer of assets.