Saturday Sun gathered that the candidate who until last December was a prominent leader of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the state is currently vying for the governorship seat on the platform of the newly registered political parties.
Trouble began for the politician who represented a Katsina senatorial district in the upper chamber of the National Assembly between 2007 and 2011, when he alerted his account officer at a branch of a
new generation bank located along Gana street, Maitaima area of Abuja that some huge transfer will hit his account.
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The governorship hopeful thereafter requested his account officer identified as Tunde to source for a bureau de change operator who will convert the money into US dollar for easy movement since he would want to withdraw half a billion naira in cash from the money.
It was also learnt that when the money was eventually converted into US dollars by a bureau de change operator in the area, it came to $3.2 million. He thereafter asked one of his aides identified as Friday to go bring the money already packed in $100 denomination inside ‘Ghana must go’ bags from the bank.
Saturday Sun gathered that between the bank and his house, the aide disappeared with the huge sum. Not ready to be exposed, the governorship hopeful did not report the matter to any law enforcement agency but instead compelled his bank to freeze the account of the bureau de change operator where the naira equivalent of the money was transferred.
Miffed by the bank’s decision to make him the scapegoat in the whole deal, the forex trader reported the matter to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC whose operatives on Thursday last week arrested the bank manager and his account officer while they continue their search for the fleeing aide. The bank officials were however granted bail this week, precisely on Tuesday.
When contacted on the phone to get his own account of the incident, the politician first feigned ignorance of such incident. He later called our reporter back to know how Saturday Sun got the information. When told journalists don’t disclose such, he admitted the incident happened but stressed “not exactly as you stated.”
The Senator has had smooth political career since the beginning of the current political dispensation in 1999 when he was elected a local government Chairman in Katsina, an office he held till 2002. In 2003, he was elected into the House of Representatives from where he got elected into the Senate in 2007.
