Nigeria Investigates JJ $3.5m Saga
JJ Rawlings interracting with Rotimi Amaechi THE ECONOMIC and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Nigeria has confirmed it is investigating an allegation that former President Jerry John Rawlings illegally sourced a $3.5 million fund from Rotimi Amaechi, Governor of Rivers State in the oil-rich West African country, to finance the 2008 electioneering campaign of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).
A spokesperson for the commission charged with the responsibility of investigating economic and financial crimes in Nigeria, Femi Baba Femi, disclosed this in an exclusive interview with Kessben Fm, a local radio station in Kumasi on Tuesday morning, and later confirmed this on Citifm yesterday in Accra.
Femi told morning show host Yaw Adu Boakye aka 'Omanhene' that his outfit could not ignore the allegation of illicit financial transactions.
“As a commission charged with the responsibility of investigating economic and financial crimes, an allegation of this nature cannot pass without catching our attention,” the spokesperson hinted diplomatically.
Baba Femi, who spoke to the radio station from Abuja in Nigeria, divulged that the EFCC, in the discharge of its constitutional duty, was critically investigating the matter which amounted to money laundering.
He explained that his outfit was dealing with the allegation tactfully because as a State Governor, the Nigerian Constitution afforded Mr. Amaechi some level of immunity.
The spokesperson further disclosed that his outfit was already investigating a series of economic and financial crimes that had occurred in the Rivers State over a period of time.
Femi Baaba Femi added that it was too early to make further public pronouncements on the matter.
“We are working; we want to get to a comfortable level before we can talk about our job…we do more of discrete investigations to establish a case before we can get comfortable to talk about it in the open,” he added.
He could however not confirm if his outfit had made contacts with the Ghanaian government on the matter.
According to Baba Femi, Mr. Amaechi's Chief of Staff, a certain Mr. Winke, was currently standing trial at the Nigerian High Court in Abuja over his role in an allegation of economic and financial crime involving an amount of 5 billion naira.
Additionally, he hinted that some bank officials in the Rivers State were also presently standing trial at the Nigerian Federal Court in Port Harcourt for their roles in a money-laundering scandal involving the sum of 3.6 billion naira.
Responding to a question as to whether Governor Amaechi had been found culpable in all these allegations, the spokesperson averred, “Not yet, but logically, how can his Chief of Staff be involved in a deal without him, the Governor, knowing any thing about it?”
He stressed that Governor Amaechi had not yet been cited in the allegations because of the fact that he enjoyed some level of immunity as a governor as prescribed by the Nigerian National Constitution.
A Nigerian website, PointBlankNews.com, alleged that it had information that Governor Rotimi Amaechi, through his friendship with the former President Mr. J.J. Rawlings, wired $3.5 million through his aides to Ghana.
The laws of Ghana do not permit political parties to solicit sponsorship from a foreign country or non-Ghanaians.
The EFCC, although tight-lipped on the extent of investigations into the matter, told Citi News that some aides of the Rivers State Governor had been declared wanted.
“I know that we have declared some of his aides wanted and we have also taken his Chief of Staff to court over alleged graft in addition to some Bank Officials that had managed the accounts of the state.”
Earlier, Mr. David Iyorfor, spokesperson of Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, stated that his boss was unaware of any ongoing investigations by the Economic Crimes Unit.
According to him, the only time his boss was under investigation was between 2006 and 2007 when he was contesting the Governorship and he had to seek refuge in Ghana.
Mr. Ayafor said that his boss was however cleared of all allegations before he was sworn in as Governor.
“We've seen the report from pointblanknews but the point I want to make is that pointblanknews is a news blog.
“It just went ahead and published a story that cannot be confirmed- no documentary evidence, and they just went ahead and published a story.
“What would sound very funny and unbelievable is that the media in Ghana would just go ahead and lift the story from pointblank without making any effort to investigate the story or make contact with us; there is absolutely no truth in the report from pointblank,” he said.
DAILY GUIDE on Monday, June 22, alongside The Chronicle and Searchlight newspapers, reported that Rotimi Amaechi, Governor of Rivers State in Nigeria, was alleged to have given out $3.5 million to the NDC through its founder, Jerry John Rawlings.
Spokesperson for the former president, Kofi Adams, however rubbished the reports calling them “baloney, nonsense and stupid”.
As usual, Adams ludicrously challenged anyone to test the truthfulness of his master by subjecting him to 'chemical interrogation'.
Meanwhile, in several interviews on radio, the publisher of pointblanknews, which first carried the report, stood by his publication, insisting the story was “true, credible and verifiable”.