EFCC Arrests Jonathan’s Principal Secretary, Tukur, Former Kaduna Gov, Yero, Ex-Bauchi SSG, Others

Wike ordered me to collect N700m, PDP Secretary confesses
Senator Iroegbu in Abuja
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested the Principal Secretary to former President Goodluck Jonathan for a yet-to-be identified crime.
The commission also arrested and detained former Kaduna State, Governor Ramalan Yero.
Sources at the commission at the time of filing this report, did not disclose the reason for Tukur’s arrest, which might not be unconnected with either expenditure on arms purchases by the Office of the National Security Adviser or slush funds linked to the 2015 presidential campaign.

However, the commission has in its pursuit of the beneficiaries of N23 billion campaign funds, arrested a former Secretary to Bauchi State Government (SSG), Alhaji Ahmed Ibrahim; former Personal Assistant to former Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State, Alhaji Sanusi Mohammed Isa; and Secretary of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Salisu Garba.

The suspects were said to have been arrested and interrogated in Gombe on Monday in connection with N500 million allegedly sent to Bauchi State from the campaign funds provided by the immediate past Minister Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke.

The trio, in their statements, allegedly said the N500 million cash was distributed in the Ramat Hall of the Government House, Bauchi State.
According to the EFCC sources, “The former secretary to the government and the secretary of PDP admitted collecting N20 million each while Yuguda’s personal assistant collected N15million.”

“However, they have individually pledged to refund the money they collected,” the source revealed.
Also, the Kano State PDP gubernatorial candidate in 2015 general election, Malam Salihu Sagir Takai, was invited by the EFCC Kano Zonal Office over the N50 million taken by his campaign organisation out of the N950 million allocated to Kano State.

Takai, a former Commissioner for Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs under the Shekarau administration whose name featured prominently last week when his principal and former Foreign Affairs Minister, Ambassador Aminu Wali, was interrogated by EFCC operatives, confirmed receiving the said sum.
Meanwhile, operatives of the EFCC have grilled the Rivers State Secretary of the People Democratic Party (PDP) Mr. Samuel Johnson Okpoko, for collecting the sum of N700million from the controversial $115million lodged with Fidelity Bank Plc, by Allison-Madueke

Okpoko who was the state PDP campaign coordinator in the 2015 presidential election collected the sum of N700 million in two tranches of N600 million and N100 million respectively at the Trans Amadi branch of Fidelity Bank Plc, Port- Harcourt.
Investigations by the EFCC revealed that Okpoko cashed N600 million on March 27 and N100 million on March 31, 2015.
Explaining how he became involved, Okpoko said he was instructed by the then PDP governorship candidate, Wike, to go to the branch of Fidelity Bank to cash some money there.

“I was with my governor in his house sometime on March 15, 2015, when he got a call and Chief Wike after the phone call told me that the call was from Fidelity Bank and they have some money for him,” he said.
Okpoko is in the custody of the EFCC and would be charged to court soon.