I didn’t receive money from Dasuki, Yuguda – Senator Nwobodo

Former governor of the old Anambra State and chieftain of  the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Jim Nwobodo yesterday denied receiving money from former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki(retd).
Nwobodo also denied  being part of the PDP chieftains that shared N3.05 billion from  the former minister of State for Finance, Bashir Yuguda.

The former governor, who is currently  on medical trip abroad in a statement explained that though he was the zonal chairman of the PDP for the 2015 presidential election, the N500 million he got for the election was from the former national chairman of the party,  Adamu Mu’azu, and not from anybody else.
He added that the money was also disbursed to the five states in the South East geo-political zone through the state chairmen of the campaign committee, adding that he could not have queried his party chairman as to the sources of the campaign fund, which were strictly spent on the election as directed by the party.
Nwobodo vehemently denied any personal knowledge or contact with Dasuki and Yuguda, stressing that “in the first place, I don’t know Col. Sambo Dasuki; I have never met him in person; I have never had any interaction with him. And I didn’t receive money from him. As for Yuguda, whose name was mentioned, I don’t know him. I think I only met him once and that’s all.”
Nwobodo said it  was unfair to bandy his name about in a manner that suggests he was a treasury looter, noting  that he had no regrets working to see the PDP win  the South East zone in the last general elections.
According to him: “The party, during the general elections, approved N500 million to be given to the South East zone for the campaigns. We have five states and when those of us nominated from the South East zone met, we were asked to choose a chairman and they chose me as their chairman.

“After series of meetings, it was agreed that the chairman of the party should make fund available to the committee to enable us start work in our respective states. They invited us to the residence of the National Chairman of the party, Dr. Adamu Mu’azu, who handed over money to me for the zone, for the election. I invited the chairmen of each of the state campaign committee and we disbursed the money, with each state receiving N100 million each.
“It was not possible for us to ascertain where the money came from. We simply received money from our national chairman and we did not ask for explanations pertaining to the source of the money; I don’t think it is our duty as party members to  query our chairman as to the source of money he was handing over to us for an election.”