$115m polls bribe: EFCC grills two former ministers

Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) grilled Mohammed Wakil, a former minister of power, and Abdu Bulama, the ex-minister of science and technology, on Monday, June 6.

Premium Times reports that they were interrogated over the $115billion public fund allegedly deployed for the 2015 general election by Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former minister of petroleum resources.

During the last presidential elections, both were Peoples Democratic Party campaign coordinators for Borno and Yobe state respectively.

According to a source at the commission, Bulama confessed that he had received N450m from Nenadi Usman, a former minister of finance.

 “Former minister of finance Nenadi Usman called and informed me to go and collect money in Fidelity Bank. A five-man committee was set up to coordinate the campaign activities in Yobe state and we received N450m.

“The money was disbursed based on a template we received from Abuja and we shared it among the three senatorial zones in the state,” he said.

Meanwhile, Muhammed Kadai, who was Bulama’s deputy, revealed details of the sharing formula.

“The money was shared according to zones. For Zone A, Abba –Gana Tata collected the sum of over N85, 100,000.00, while Dr Mamu collected N73, 510.000.00 on behalf of Mohammed Hassan Dambu and zone C received N70, 470.000.00, through Alhaji Hassan Ibn Jaks for Dr Yarima Ngama,” he said.

The EFCC source added that Wakil also confessed that he had received a call from Usman that N450m was sent to Fidelity bank and a template for how the disbursement of the funds would be conducted.

“Nicholas Msheliya, Peter Biye, Hon. Kudla Satumaria, Hon. Ibrahim Birma, all from southern Borno received the sum of N112, 340.000.00. Equally Hon. Kangar, through Dr. Kulima A.A received N88, 620.000.00 while Engr Mohammad Baba Kachalla, Hon. Kaamuna Khadi, Hon. Zarma Mustapha and Hon. Abdulrahman Tarab received the sum of 140,860.000.00,” he was quoted as saying.

The two former ministers are currently in the EFCC custody in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, as the investigation continues.

Earlier this year, Usman returned N140 million out of the N2.5 billion she had allegedly received from the office of Sambo Dasuki, a former national security adviser, ahead of the presidential election.

Usman, who served as the director of finance of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, surrendered two of her houses in Abuja to the federal government.