By Chris Iwarah and Lukman Olabiyi
FORMER Aviation minister, Chief Femi Fani- Kayode has challenged the Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC) to invite him if it is willing to investigate his role in the alleged sharing of N2.5 billion presidential campaign funds allegedly taken from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
In a personal statement yesterday, the former minister said he was in his residence in Abuja and was ready to answer any query from the anti-graft agency.
“I have been in my Abuja home for the last few weeks and I am not in hiding from anyone. I am not a coward and this attempt to further demonise and humiliate me by the EFCC will fail. If they have any questions for me, why don’t they just write to me or call me; give me a date and I will be in their office? I have made my position clear on the issue of the presidential campaign fund …Others that were invited to the EFCC over this same campaign fund issue were sent letters of invitation and were reached. I appear to be the exception and now these hideous lies are being fed to the newspapers to make it look as if I am in hiding or that I am running from them just to sensationalise the whole issue. This is to justify what the EFCC wishes to do, which is to arrest me in public, humiliate me or storm my home and lock me up indefinitely.”
In a related development, the former minister has threatened to sue The Nation newspaper for allegedly libelling him in a report titled: “N2.5b fraud: Udenwa, Fani-Kayode in trouble.”
The Nation claimed in the report published on Monday that the EFCC had launched a manhunt for Fani-Kayode for allegedly receiving N840 million slush funds from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) between February and March 2015.
But, in a letter to The Nation by his lawyer, Adeola Adedipe of Ahmed Raji & Co., Fani-Kayode described the report as “spurious.” The letter denied that EFCC invited the former minister over the probe of alleged N2.5 billion slush funds from the CBN.
Fani-Kayode demanded a retraction and apology within seven days or risk legal action.
