$6.9m Graft: Prove Your Allegations, Obuah Challenges SSS

Source: thewillnigeria.com

BEVERLY HILLS, August 30, (THEWILL) – The former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to President Goodluck Jonathan, Mr. Gordon Obuah, has challenged his employer, the State Security Services (SSS) to prove that he received $6.9m from government for the purchase of three mobile 40-foot stages that were not bought.

Obuah in a statement by his attorney, Andrew Itsekiri, denied initiating a memo for the purchase and also debunked claims that the funds were laundered through a company linked to him.

An SSS investigation, which was deliberately leaked to the media on Saturday, had alleged that Obuah, former Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Deziani Alison-Madueke and President Goodluck Jonathan conspired to launder the money , which was released from an account belonging to the NNPC.

But Obuah's attorney disclosed that the company, J. Marine Logistics Limited, Abuja, which was said to have received the $6.9 million for the construction of stages, did not belong to Mr. Obuah and had no relationship with the company.

He challenged those behind the fabrication to produce evidence from the corporate commission Abuja linking the ownership of the company that purportedly received the said sum of $6.9m dollars to his client.

He also challenged the leadership of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to ‎ identify the person or the owner of the company to whom the purported money was paid.

Mr. Itsekiri also pointed out that resorting to media trial was a calculated attempt by government to discredit his client after agencies of government had investigated him and found nothing with which to nail him.

He said that Obuah was confronted with this same allegation by the State Security Service and that nothing incriminating was found against him.

He wondered why government had now resorted to media trial.

“Our client did not know anything about the purported transactions. He did not initiate any memo to the then presidency. It is a mere cheap blackmail,” Itsekiri said.

”The authorities have a duty to dispel claims that the whole idea is to hurriedly charge him to court with no single shred of evidence to convict, with the expectation that his innocence can only be established years later, after his reputation would have been irredeemably dented before an unsuspecting public,” the statement obtained by THEWILL said.

While advising the government to concentrate on governance, Itsekiri said that the Muhammadu Buhari administration ”would be setting a dangerous precedent by deliberately subjecting innocent people to media trial, knowing clearly that the cases are seriously bereft of facts and evidence, linking such persons to the crimes advertised.”