Governor Fayose says President Buhari is a
corrupt man.
The Ekiti state governor distributed a link to
the US Department of Justice’s website
holding court documents where Aisha
Buhari was alleged to have transferred
suspicious funds to a convicted former
American congressman, Williams Jefferson.
In a statement signed by his Chief Press
Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, Fayose said
President Buhari was far from being a clean
man.
“Even the President cannot claim to be an
angel,” the governor said, in reaction to the
freezing of his Zenith Bank account by the
Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission.
“The estate he built in Abuja is known to us.
His wife was indicted over the Halliburton
Scandal (sic). When that American,
Jefferson, was being sentenced, the
President’s wife was mentioned as having
wired $170,000 to Jefferson. Her name was
on page 25 of the sentencing of Jefferson.
We can serialize the judgment for people to
see and read.”
The governor’s Special Assistant on New
Media, Lere Olayinka, later circulated links
to and copies of the court document
detailing Mrs Buhari’s mention in the
scandal.
The documents showed that in some of the
exhibits tendered in convicting Mr. Jefferson
of bribery, Mrs. Buhari was mentioned as
transferring $170,000 to the American
politician using a firm as proxy.
“Government Exhibits 36-87 (6/26/02
$170,000 wire transfer from account in
Nigeria in the name of Aisha Buhari to an
account in the name of The ANJ Group, LLC,
identifying “William Jefferson” as
Beneficiary),” the US Government Sentencing
Memorandum said on page 22.
Aisha Buhari could not be reached for
comments. And Presidential spokesman,
Femi Adesina, declined comments, saying
he would need to check the documents
himself before issuing an official statement.
Fayose’s comment sparked a recollection of
how Mr Jefferson, between 2000 and 2005,
used his position as member of the U.S.
House of Representatives to offer illegal
services to private companies for cash
rewards.
Premium Times reports that Jefferson and
his family, according to US authorities,
received about $367,500 through through
his firm, ANJ Group, for services rendered to
iGate, an American broadband technology
provider.
An indigenous firm, Netlink Digital
Television, had signed a joint venture with
iGate to set up digital satellite TV and
broadband Internet services in the country.
NDTV was owned by Oyewole Fasawe, a
PDP chieftain at the time.
Mr. Jefferson was contracted to help
promote iGate and NDTV partnership in
Nigeria.
Following a lengthy trial, Mr. Jefferson was
convicted in 2009 and sentenced to 13
years in prison.
Although Mr. Fasawe was arrested in 2005
by the EFCC, he was never convicted.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar were
also said to be a person of interest in the
allegations.
A final report released by the EFCC on June
22, 2006 about the bribery scandal also
contained Mrs. Buhari’s Citizens Bank
account statements and how she transferred
funds to Mr. Jefferson.
A 2007 New York Times’ article detailed
how Mrs. Buhari told an acquaintance in
Washington that she was a daughter of a
former Nigerian head of state and a friend
of Mr. Jefferson.
“As the pair struck up a conversation and
subsequently became friends, Mr. Assiba,
then a security guard, said she told him that
her father was the former military ruler of
Nigeria, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, and that
her American friends included politicians
like Mr. Jefferson of Louisiana.”
Meanwhile, the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission(EFCC) has frozen the
personal account of Governor Ayodele
Fayose.
