The Economic and Financial Crimes\u00a0 Commission (EFCC), and the Benue state Government have dismissed claims by\u00a0 the Action Congress\u00a0 that\u00a0 the Senior Special Assistant , Public Affairs to President Goodluck Jonathan was involved in some unwholesome acts\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 while executing a contract in Benue state.<\/p>\n
In a statement issued on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party , quoting\u00a0 an unverified\u00a0 online report,\u00a0 said Dr Doyin Okupe, the newly appointed Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs is on the list of those being investigated by Nigeria\u2019s anti-corruption body, the EFCC on account of a contract running into hundreds of millions of Naira .<\/p>\n
According to Mohammed, rather than execute the project,\u00a0 Dr. Okupe bolted with the over N200,000,000 (two hundred million Naira only) mobilization money, which he is believed to have invested in his ill-fated political ambition.<\/p>\n
But checks reveal that the whole brouhaha was a calculated attempt to malign the presidential spokesman whose mandate among others is to properly propagate the programmes, achievements\u00a0 and policies of the administration.<\/p>\n
Mohammed had called for the resignation of Okupe. But pundits who spoke on the issue are of the view that it was hypocritical of the Action Congress to latch onto allegations published online and ignore the huge fraud allegedly\u00a0 perpetrated by the Speaker of the AC led Lagos House of Assembly, Adeyemi Sabitu Ikuforiji.<\/p>\n
Ikuforiji is still battling allegations of a N7 Billion fraud . Ikuforiji who had been quizzed by the EFCC allegedly siphoned N500 million running cost\u00a0 through first line charge. In 14 months Ikuforiji, a twice convicted felon in the United States,\u00a0 pocketed N7 Billion.<\/p>\n
According to a source, the root of the attack could be traced to Ogun State where the Action Congress is jittery of the perceived ambition of Okupe to be the next Governor of Ogun State. This claim has been denied by Okupe who maintained that he has no such ambition.<\/p>\n
Spokesman of the EFCC, Wilson Uwujiaren on Monday denied the allegation that Okupe is being investigated by the commission.<\/p>\n
A top official of the Benue Government who refused to be named because he was not mandated to officially speak for the Government said, Okupe did not bolt away with any government funds, and that the claim is the figment of the opposition\u2019s imagination .
\nAccording to Uwujiaren \u201c I am not aware , and it is not to my notice that (Doyin) Okupe is under investigation\u201d<\/p>\n
The source close to the Benue Government said \u201c the allegation that he took some huge sums of cash and did not execute the project is total falsehood. This is just the handiwork of the AC, and it is very sad that we should be mudslinging someone because we belong to a different party\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Economic and Financial Crimes\u00a0 Commission (EFCC), and the Benue state Government have dismissed claims by\u00a0 the Action Congress\u00a0 that\u00a0 the Senior Special Assistant , Public Affairs to President Goodluck…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n