The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) detained Yakubu after allegedly recovering huge sums of money at his house in the Sabo Tasha area of Kaduna state.
Yakubu admitted ownership of the money, but claimed that they were gifts from unnamed persons.
In a statement on Thursday, Sagamu Jaspar, general secretary of SKCOP, wondered if there was a law which forbade anyone from keeping his earnings at home.
;
He alleged that some persons were plotting to pull down “our illustrious son and sacrifice him to the dogs” as a means of weakening the strong among us ahead 2019 general election.
“We are waiting to see if a court of law can establish that the said amount found in his home is a proceed of crime, or whether there is indeed a law that forbids anyone from keeping his earnings at home,” Jaspar said.
“We suspect that the deliberate negative publicity the EFCC is generating over his arrest and its failure to release him from their detention after meeting his bail conditions, is more vindictive and political than fighting corruption.
“We condemn the desperate attempts to rubbish Andy Yakubu, (the Iyan of Atyap Chiefdom) by those who think that a man from southern Kaduna has no business becoming the GMD of NNPC started right when he was in office.”
The group said some people were out to tarnish the reputation of the “only man from the middle belt” to have led the oil firm.
It added that in 2014 when Sanusi Lamido, former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) raised the allegation of missing $20 billion, the agency which audited the corporation which was led by Yakubu at the time, gave NNPC a clean bill of health.
“In 2014, the then CBN governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, raised a bogus alarm that under the watch of Andy Yakubu, $48.9 billion had gone missing at the NNPC. When pressed further, he said it was actually $20 billion. The senate took the matter very serious and instituted its own probe into the clearly silly allegation,” the group said.
“An audit firm of global repute, PriceWaterHouseCoopers was brought in by the federal government. After a forensic investigation, the firm said no such monies were ever missing.
“Still bent on disgracing the only person from the middle belt to ever occupy that position after rising from the ranks, Andy Yakubu was in UK in June last year, when the EFCC invited him. With his conscience clean and clear he arrived Nigeria just for the EFCC to clamp him in detention over an alleged criminality in an NNPC subsidiary, NPDC after Yakubu has left office.
Demanding his immediate release, Jaspar challenged the EFCC to parade all those whom the agency recovered money from.
He said failure to do so would confirm the allegation that the commission is “persecuting” the suspect.
“Keeping him in detention for almost two weeks despite the above is a means of psychologically tormenting him and for the public to prolong their odium on his person, without giving him a chance to state his own side of the story,” he said.
“If Andy Yakubu is not being persecuted because he comes from Southern Kaduna and the Middle Belt, we challenge the EFCC to also parade all the people it claims to have recovered humongous sums of money from. Failure to so would mean the agency is lying, or has two sets of law for two kinds of Nigerians.” Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
Sagamu Jasper, what a shameless defensive outburst in the face of overwhelmingly glaring evidence of uncommon heist!
ReplyDelete1. Apparently, the SKCOP are a bunch of areas boy bcos I expect that professionals should at least knownthe law. N500k is the cash limit for individuals, the last time I cheecked. Millions of dollars is definitley off. Come to think of it, if it is legit, shouldnt it be safer in the banks?
ReplyDelete2. Why is this simple crime being politicised? Very typical of Nigeria and her crop of politicians.
3. With this kind of attitude, what moral justification do we have to hold government accountable for infracstructure, security, exchnage rates, etc?
Please let him know ooo.....
ReplyDeleteJasper, truly you are the secretary of the sugomus'/imbecile association you called SKCOP! I doubt it if you know your right hand from your left, or you are one of Yakubu's praise singers that benefits from his illicit wealth. I presume that you are educated, but your mind is not and this has shown in your skewed thinking. You are Yakubu's campaign manager for 2019 election. You encouraged him to steal and keep the money for the coming election so that you will have money to buy people's vote and corrupt INEC official to manipulate election results to favour your Andy. Weldone!
ReplyDeleteI thought SAGAMU is the name of a town in Ogun State South West Nigeria !!!
ReplyDelete