By Chimezie Godfrey
A member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Afegbua has vowed to pursue to a logical conclusion his petition to the EFCC and ICPC against the leadership of the party despite threats.
He said this while briefing journalists on Wednesday in Abuja.
Recall that Afegbua recently petitioned the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party to the anti-granft agencies to be investigated on account of their involvement in laundering over N10billion, being monies accrued to the party which never passed through the designated bank accounts of the party.
He decried the fact that since petitioning the party leadership, there have been attempts to intimidate him with threats.
He therefore said that he would not be deterred by the subtle threats, but will pursue the matter to its logical conclusion.
He said, “Since Monday, 26th April, when I submitted a petition to the the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission-EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission ICPC, I have been inundated with several telephone calls by party Chieftains, pundits and lackeys alike with a mixed grill.
“While majority of those callers are commending my bold resolve at ensuring transparency in the management of the finances of the Peoples Democratic Party-PDP, a handful of others tried to subtly intimidate me with threats.
“Let us be clear on a point, my position remains the same: I will follow through this present request to a logical conclusion to serve as a worthy caution note to those aspiring to occupy party positions.”
The PDP stalwart noted that he did not ask the PDP to give him its concocted audited reports or balance sheet that would seem to suggest that all is well.
He stressed that he simply asked the anti-granft agencies to look into the records of book-keeping with respect to the resources that have accrued, to find out if the leadership had followed standard procedure of accounting practice.
“Without fear of contradiction, I am aware that the party’s leadership has been involved in money laundering for failure to follow what the law prescribes.
“Having consulted with my lawyers, I wish to state more emphatically that any monetary transaction that is above the threshold of N10million, must pass through financial institution for ease of tracing and monitoring.
“And such bank account must be the ones owned by the party, and not that of persons or group of persons that purport to act on behalf of the party.
“Despite denials by the party’s publicist, I still stand on my initial figure of N10billion being money generated from sales of forms for presidential, gubernatorial, senatorial, house of representatives and houses of assembly elections in 2019 as well as donations,” he said.
Afegbua however observed that for the party to say it realized N4.6billion as opposed to N10billion means progress is being made.
According to him, the leadership only needs to volunteer the EFCC and ICPC such information once investigation begins, to assist the agencies to arrive at a holistic conclusion.
He called on the EFCC and ICPC to take judicious note of some account numbers and companies, which were allegedly used as conduit to launder money against the run of play.
He further noted that the companies (names withheld) need to be properly scrutinized by the anti-granft agencies to establish the role they play in the financial flow of PDP finances, with respect to sale of nomination forms during the last general elections in 2019.
“I am sure the persons involved would be able to volunteer information required to properly situate the meat of the matter before the EFCC and ICPC,” he stressed.
He further stressed that should the EFCC and ICPC delay in carrying out the investigation, he will have no other option than to apply for an order of mandamus to compel them to take the appropriate action.
