Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has denied reports that he donated the sum of N40 billion to former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki while he was in office as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Sanusi made the comments on Monday, December 14, 2015, during an interview with The Cable.
“This is completely untrue. In the first place, I understand the laws of money laundering. And it is a criminal offence. The central bank is the chief regulator charged with ensuring we put an end to money laundering,” the Emir said.
“This is partly why we started our cashless Nigeria project and why I started the BVN project. I would never authorise that amount of cash to be moved to the office of the NSA or to anyone even if it was in their account.
“I do not know where they are getting these strange stories. I was removed from the CBN in February 2014, and to the best of my knowledge, the EFCC is probing disbursements allegedly made in late 2014 and early 2015 before the general elections, if indeed they happened.
“I find it difficult to believe that this could happen in the CBN that I know but we have to wait and see what the investigations come out with. Certainly whoever is linking me to this did not even bother to look at the dates of the alleged transactions. I know nothing about them, period.
“We never gave cash to anybody. If we did we disclosed it in published accounts under CSR. Our interventions, be this to educational institutions or security services, took the form of clearly identified projects or specified procurement, done through well laid-down procedures, including competitive bidding, award of contracts, and collection of no-objection certificate from the due process office. We did not give cash to anybody.
“The total amount disbursed by the CBN on capital projects in my five years was N55 billion. And this included contracts for CBN branches and our CSR interventions mainly in the universities and secondary schools. How can anyone suggest that we gave N40 billion to ONSA?" he added.
Sanusi lost his job as CBN governor in 2014 after he alleged that $20 billion had gone missing from the coffers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Dasuki is currently at the center of a massive money laundering investigation and is alleged to have supervised the looting of $2 billion in funds which were meant for the procurement of arms for Nigeria's military.
President Muhammadu Buhari had ordered the arrest of Dasuki and others indicted in the alleged fraud after receiving a report submitted by a panel instituted by him to probe Nigeria’s arms purchases from 2007-2015.
The former NSA has been in the eye of the storm since being removed by Buhari in July.
His homes in Sokoto and Abuja were raided by agents of theDepartment of State Services (DSS) and he was subsequently charged with money laundering and illegal possession of weapons.
The EFCC has also arrested 20 of Dasuki's former staff, Chairman of Africa Independent Television (AIT), Raymond Dokpesi and former Sokoto State Governor, Attahiru Bafarawain connection with the allegations.
Dasuki himself was arrested by the DSS on December 1, 2015 and handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) the day after.
He was charged to court on Monday, December 14, but he pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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