Former national security adviser Col Sambo Dasuki named Chief Falae as one of the recipients of the cash meant to buys arms for the military but which he distributed among political associates. Apparently, Chief Falae, a former secretary to the federal government and finance minister was paid N100m (£352,694) to get his SDP to support the People's Democratic Party (PDP) during the last presidential election.
However, Chief Falae maintains that he has no dealings with Col Dasuki and the money was given to him by Chief Tony Anenih, the chairman of the PDP's board of trustees as payment for the SDP's support. According to Chief Falae, he has had no communication with the former security chief since 1987, when he was secretary to the federal government and Col Dasuki was the former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida's aide-de-camp.
He said he was ashamed to be linked with the scandal, adding that he had not involved himself in any shady deal in his life. Chief Falae said those seeking to blackmail him would permanently shut their mouths and have nothing any more to speak about the issue by the time he presents his side of the story next week.
Chief Falae said the alliance he entered with the PDP was normal in a democracy, saying he did same for President Muhammadu Buhari’s defunct All Nigerian Peoples Party in 2007. He added that the money paid for the services the SDP rendered were in order as they were to fund campaigning and publicity material.
“Some people are still writing spurious nonsense but I intend to address the press sometimes next week, probably in Lagos, to tell my story so everybody can hear and the blackmailers can shut up forever. I have said so several times and I will say so now as a believer in God, that I did not collect even one naira from Col Dasuki.
“The N100m they are talking about, was the money sent by the PDP to our party the SDP, following our endorsement of their presidential candidate. After a hot debate, we agreed to endorse their candidate and after the endorsement, they said we know that your party hasn’t got money with which to campaign for our candidate, so to enable you campaign effectively for him we want to send you some money and I said thank you," Chief Falae added.
He added that they sent him N100m which he transferred to the SDP's account and which was used along with other funds to conduct the last election. According to Chief Falae, he set up a committee which drew up the modalities for distributing the money to the various states, depending on the number of candidates and whether they had a governorship, House of Representatives candidates and other factors.
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