{"id":7171,"date":"2016-01-12T08:48:29","date_gmt":"2016-01-12T08:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=7171"},"modified":"2016-01-12T08:48:29","modified_gmt":"2016-01-12T08:48:29","slug":"2-1b-arms-scam-why-jonathan-must-speak-up-pdp-deputy-national-publicity-secretary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=7171","title":{"rendered":"$2.1b Arms Scam: Why Jonathan must speak up – PDP Deputy National Publicity Secretary"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Peoples Democratic Party said on Monday that it has become imperative for former President Goodluck Jonathan to speak out now on the $2.1 billion meant for the purchase of arms to fight the Boko Haram insurgency during his tenure, but which has been traced by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to the bank accounts of politicians.<\/strong>
\nThe PDP, which made its position known on Monday at a press conference, also said all those who partook in the sharing of the money must be made to refund it.
\nThe party said it was surprised that the former President could still be quiet on the issue despite the fact that the controversy must have attracted his attention.
\nThe arms money was allegedly shared by the office of Jonathan\u2019s former National Security Adviser, retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki, for the purpose of Jonathan\u2019s bid to retain the presidential seat in 2015.
\nJonathan was, however, defeated by President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress.
\nThe Deputy Nation\"Jonathan\"al Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Alhaji Abdulahi Jalo, who made the position of the PDP known on the issue at a press conference in Abuja at the party\u2019s National Secretariat, said Jonathan should tell Nigerians and the international community whether he authorised the sharing of the money meant to fight insurgency in the North East in particular and the country as a whole.
\nJalo said: \u201cAs all of you know, no single kobo can be spent by the Federal Government without an act of the National Assembly.
\n\u201cMoney earmarked for arms purchase, some people diverted it to something else.
\n\u201cSo many people that you cannot even expect were involved.
\n\u201cNow, darkness has come to light.
\n\u201cJonathan is alive, he should clarify whether he asked the National Security Adviser to divert money meant to fight Boko Haram into his campaign.
\n\u201cI\u2019m from the North East and I know the terrible security situation our people are facing there.
\n\u201cThe money was meant to fight Boko Haram and we all know that you can\u2019t rule without peace.
\n\u201cNow darkness has given way for the light.
\n\u201cIt was not only members of the PDP that shared the money.
\n\u201cMembers of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Accord Party and the Social Democratic Party, among others, also shared.
\n\u201cAt least, Chief Olu Falae is not a member of the PDP.
\n\u201cAll of them should return the money.
\n\u201cThen, (former) President Jonathan must speak on it.
\n\u201cHe is still alive.
\n\u201cHas he ever said anything like this to Dasuki: \u2018Go and take from the money meant for the war against Boko Haram and share for my campaign?\u2019
\n\u201cIt is time for him to speak up.\u201d
\nJalo said there was no reason for the PDP to dip its hands into the money meant for the purchase of arms as it had a fund raising dinner where it raked in over N20 billion to prosecute the 2015 general election.
\nHe said: \u201cWe are not fools.
\n\u201cMoney meant for the party\u2019s campaign was given to the chairman of our party.
\n\u201cWe had a dinner where billions of money was realised and this money was for the campaign.
\n\u201cWe said so and Nigerians were aware.
\n\u201cWe thank God that all those who took money used their private accounts and companies to get that.
\n\u201cWhat has this got to do with the PDP?
\n\u201cHaliru Bello did a contract with the office of Sambo Dasuki to the tune of N600 million with his company\u2019s name, not PDP.
\n\u201cIn the case of Olisa Metuh (National Publicity Secretary of the PDP), his company allegedly had transactions with the Office of National Security Adviser.
\n\u201cSo, what is PDP\u2019s business with that?
\n\u201cWe want those people that have been accused to shed more light whether they were given the money to campaign for Jonathan.
\n\u201cDid they bring the money to the party\u2019s national secretariat?
\n\u201cPDP has nothing to do with individuals that used their companies to do contracts with National Security Adviser.
\n\u201cThose who have been accused to have collected money from the office of the NSA should come and tell Nigerians how they used the money for the party.
\n\u201cPDP has no company.
\n\u201cIt is not a private company.
\n\u201cIt is a political party.
\n\u201cWas this money paid into the party account?
\n\u201cNo.
\n\u201cSo, these people are on their own.
\n\u201cThey know that the money was meant for the purchase of arms.
\n\u201cAnd why didn\u2019t they ask him in case they didn\u2019t know: \u2018Oga, where is this money coming from?\u2019
\n\u201cBecause of their actions now, people are looking at every member of the PDP as criminals.
\n\u201cMe, Jalo, I\u2019m not a criminal.
\n\u201cI didn\u2019t benefit and I didn\u2019t ask for any money and I wouldn\u2019t have asked for any money from the office of the NSA or anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Peoples Democratic Party said on Monday that it has become imperative for former President Goodluck Jonathan to speak out now on the $2.1 billion meant for the purchase of arms to fight the Boko Haram insurgency during his tenure, but which has been traced by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to the bank […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[1183,952,356],"class_list":["post-7171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-alhaji-abdulahi-jalo","tag-dr-goodluck-jonathan","tag-sambo-dasuki"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Jonathan.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-1RF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7172,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7171\/revisions\/7172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}