A former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and later Minister of Defence, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode, has said he had no hands in the alleged diversion of N35,000,000,000 arms procurement scandal presently being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The former minister said on Monday that he could not have collected an alleged $240,000 from any contractor since he had no hand in the processing of contracts, which he added was the turf of the tenders’ board.
Kayode in a statement by his spokesperson, Tunji Salawu, said such allegation of him receiving money from a said contractor was unfounded and false.
It was reported recently that the EFCC had begun a probe into a case of diversion of public funds totalling N35bn at the Ministry of Defence which were meant for the procurement of military equipment for peace keeping missions.
The EFCC, in its investigative report obtained by our correspondent on Sunday, had named the former minister, Kayode, and a former Chief of Staff to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Mike Oghiadomhe, as having allegedly benefited from the funds.
According to the probe report, the EFCC arrested a suspect, Donald Peterson, 47, the Managing Director of Richfield Technologies Limited, one of the companies awarded contracts by the defence ministry, who also named Kayode in his confessional statement.
But the former minister through his spokesperson, Salawu, said, “There is no iota of truth in the said allegation. It is on record that Mr Oghiadome Junior has consistently refused any suggestion that he took any money from the contractor and that he never gave any money to Prince Kayode.
“Also, as a minister, Prince Kayode had no hand in the processing of contracts – that is the turf of the tenders board and approval is given by the President. Two, Prince Kayode was not the Defence Minister when the alleged contract was issued.
“Prince Kayode never collected any money from any contractor on any defence contract. Please keep him out of any smear campaign.”
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