Fani-Kayode: Jonathan’s Campaign Organisation Owes My Company N24m, Says Witness

The Managing Director of Paste Poster Company Limited, Mr. Olusegun Idowu, has alleged that ex-president Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign organisation owes his company N24m for the printing of posters for the 2015 presidential election.

This sum, according to him, was part of a total of N54million poster pasting and consultancy jobs which his company did for the campaign organisation in the build-up to the last general elections.

Idowu made the claims yesterday while giving evidence before the Federal High Court in Lagos, where the then Director of Media and Publicity of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, is being prosecuted for an alleged fraud of N4.9bn.

Idowu, a media consultant, was the first witness called by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to prove its case against Fani-Kayode and three others.

He said his company was paid N30m cash in tranches of N6million and N24m for consultancy and printing of the ex-president’s campaign posters, while another N24m remained unpaid till date.

While being cross-examined by Fani-Kayode’s lawyer, Mr Norrison Quakers (SAN), Idowu told the court that his company got the poster printing job from the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation through referral by a member of the organisation, Aderemi Ajidahun.

The media consultant, whose company’s office is on Lagos Island, said one Oke related with his company on behalf of the campaign organisation.

He said his company received the cash payments of N24million and N6million from Oke.
When asked by Quakers whether he had any direct dealing with Fani-Kayode, Idowu said he never had any direct dealing with him.

The case was adjourned till November 20, 21 and 22 for the continuation of trial.

Standing trial alongside Fani-Kayode for the alleged fraud relating to the ex-president’s campaign is a former minister of state for finance, Nenadi Usman, as well as one Danjuma Yusuf and a company, Joint Trust Dimensions Ltd.
The defendants were arraigned before Justice Rilwan Aikawa on 17 counts bordering on conspiracy, unlawful retention of proceeds of theft and money laundering.

They, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In the charges, Fani-Kayode was accused of conspiring with the other defendants to, directly and indirectly, retain various sums which the EFCC claimed they ought to have reasonably known were proceeds of crime.

The defendants, in one of the counts, were accused of conspiring among themselves to “indirectly retain the sum of N1,500, 000,000.00, which sum you reasonably ought to have known forms part of the proceeds of an unlawful act to wit: stealing.”

They were also accused of indirectly retaining N300m, N400m, and N800m, which according to the anti-graft agency, were all proceeds of corruption.

EFCC said they allegedly committed the offence between January 8 and March 25, 2015, ahead of the 2015 general election.