We Won’t Refund A Dime To Anyone – Olu Falae To EFCC

Yesterday the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) disclosed that those who were beneficiaries of funds from the arms procurement deal alleged to have been distributed by former National Security Adviser (NSA) were to refund them or face prosecution.

But, Falae rejected the claims by responding that, he collected the money from Anenih and not Dasuki. Speaking through Abdul Isaiq, the SDP national publicity secretary, Falae insisted that his party did not receive a dime from the arms fund, but from the PDP for electoral alliance with the party in the run-off to the 2015 presidential election.

“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,” he said. “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 fundraising 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. 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 fundraising, where it generated over N20 billion down.”

The party said rather than ask it to refund the money, the EFCC should ask Anenih where he got the money from. “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.

“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.”