Kingsley Kanayo
The National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party, Chief Olu Falae, Monday, said he would not refund the N100 million he collected from Chief Tony Anenih.
Anenih had given the money, which he received from ex-National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, to Falae for his party’s support for re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Speaking in Abuja, through the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Dr. Abdul Ahmed Isaiq, Falae insisted that his party would not return the money to the government.
He explained that the money was as a result of electoral alliance his party entered with the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party, to deliver the then President Goodluck Jonathan in his re-election quest.
According to him, those returning money to the government were those who got money directly from the Office of the former NSA.
“In terms of refund of money, I want to say here that those people who are refunding money are those who got their money directly from the arms deal fund.
“Our fund did not come from the arms deal; our fund came from an electoral alliance with the PDP and we knew that the PDP had a fund raising committee that gathered billions of naira and PDP had been in government for 16 years.
”So, with that, we knew that the PDP had the capacity to fund the alliance that was formed with them by the SDP,” he explained.
“You don’t postulate what you don’t have on the ground, you can’t build on a non- foundation.
“We, as a political party knew that the PDP was a capable hand in the electoral alliance which we entered with them. And we equally knew that the PDP had a fund raising, where it generated over N20 billion down.
“So, whether the money came from Col. Sambo Dasuki or his office, is what we don’t know and it is left for them to ask Chief Tony Anenih to explain”, he added.
He emphasized: “We knew that the PDP had been ruling Nigeria for 16 years. So, this was the basis of our electoral alliance with them.
“We can’t refund any money to anybody because the money we got as a party came because of the alliance we had with the PDP and we have the agreement note from this alliance.
“If it is possible that the money Chief Anenih gave us was from the arms deal, it is left for them to ask Chief Anenih to clarify. As far as we knew, we did not have any dealing with Dasuki.
“Our office did not ever have anything to do with the office or person of the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki.”
Dr Abdul explained that prior to the 2015 presidential election, the SDP was approached by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP through its BOT chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, for electoral alliance for the re-election bid of the former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan.
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