From Kayode Lawal, Abuja.
Immediate past Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, Boss Mustapha on Tuesday in Abuja cleared former President Muhammadu Buhari and himself from the alleged fraudulent payment of $6.2M dollars to foreign election monitoring observers.
He said that the letter credited to former President Buhari as author and signatory did not emanate from the Presidency while another one purported to have emanated from him and signed by him were forged documents.
Mustapha made the clarifications on Tuesday while giving evidence in the trial of former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory.
He said that the one, Jubrin Abubakar who allegedly collected the $6.2M cash on February 8, 2023 under the watch of Emefiele was not a staff of the office of the SGF and was not known to him.
Mustapha faulted the purported two letters alleged to have emanated from the Presidency under Buhari and the SGF office adding that the letters did not conform with the standard with which the Presidency and SGF write letters.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC had alleged that Emefiele forged the letters to defraud the federal government to the tune of$6, 230, 000 under the guise of making payments to some foreign election monitoring observers.
Mustapha insisted that the issue of payment for either local or foreign observers is the sole responsibility of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC and not any other federal government agency.
“Iam not privy to the operations of the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN and cannot write the governor for the attention of the Director, Banking Services.
“From mere looking at the purported letters, the headline down the contents are defective. Iam not aware of the contents of the letters because there was no Federal Executive Council approval for such a thing”, he said.
“The purported letter from the office of Secretary to the Government of the Federation bears my name as the SGF. To the best of my knowledge, the letter did not emanate from the SGF office. If did not emanate from the SGF office, then, I did not sign it.
” Nigerian government has no business with foreign election observers. That I know as a fact because I managed two election cycles. INEC has sole responsibility for the foreign election monitoring observers.
“Looking at the signature on the purported letter that emanated from the Presidency, it is a failed attempt at reproducing President Muhammadu Buhari’s signature.
“Uptil the time I left office, I did not know anything about the transactions. All through my service, I did not come across the letter purported to have been written by Mr President.
“On the face value, and having served as SGF for 5 years and 7 months as SGF, I can say this letter did not emanate from the Presidency for seven major reasons.
“Among others, the seal of the Presidency does not carry reference number. Seal itself is the authority. Federal Executive Council decisions are not transmitted by letters but by extracts after conclusions have been adopted.
“Iam the custodian of FEC. The President will not refer FEC conclusions to me. In all the correspondences from the Presidency, President Buhari never ended with “Please, accept the assurances of my highest regards.
Meanwhile, further trial has been fixed for March 7th, 11th and 25th.
