NEWS - EFCC works on petition linking President Buhari’s aide, Abba Kyari, to contract scam

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission says it has started work on a petition linking Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari , to a contract scam.

The Spokesperson for the EFCC, Mr . Wilson Uwujaren , said this in a text message sent to our correspondent on Friday .

The petitioner , Bako Waziri Kyari, who claimed to be a nephew to the chief of staff had said during a popular radio programme, Berekete Family , on Human Rights Radio 101 . 1 FM in Abuja , that Kyari and Sani Ado , whom he claimed worked with the Bureau of Public Procurement , allegedly collected N 29 . 9 m from him in order to facilitate the award of a contract .

The petitioner said he had written a petition to the EFCC but the commission refused to treat it, insisting that it could not investigate the President ’s aide .
In his reaction , however , the EFCC spokesperson said, “The petition by Bako Waziri is being investigated by the commission.

Any serious investigation takes time and it is presumptuous to conclude that the EFCC is non - committal simply because you did not receive instant result. This is how investigations are done. ” Bako , who is from Bama in Borno State , told Berekete Family that when he lost his father, Kyari came to commiserate with the family and then promised him the contract.
He said on getting to Abuja , he met with Kyari at Caledonia Hotel. Maitama, four times .
Bako alleged that Kyari asked him to pay Ado some money to facilitate the award of the contract.

He said he approached a friend who lent him some money , adding that he also sold his properties in order to raise N 29 . 9 m which he used in facilitating the contract.
Speaking through an interpreter, he said, “Abba Kyari asked if I had a company registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission. I told him I did and so he asked me to come down to Abuja . We met at least four times at Caledonia Hotel on Gana Street , Maitama. We discussed there. The hotel should have CCTV and this can be confirmed. “Abba Kyari collected the documents of my company . He said I would supply 15 Toyota Hilux vehicles to the Presidential Villa . He gave me an agreement to sign and I signed two documents. He collected two letterheads from me, 12 passport photos and introduced me to Sani Ado and Alhaji Ibrahim .
“He said anytime they needed money , he would let me know so that I could give the money to Sani Ado. Ado began collecting money from me to process the contract .

Before depositing money into Ado’s account , I always alerted Abba Kyari and he would tell me to go ahead .

“All the money I transferred to Ado summed up to N 29 , 950 , 000 . The total contract was worth N 300 ,725 , 000 . They promised me 30 per cent profit of the total contract which is about N 94 m . ”
The petitioner said Ado called him later to tell him that the money had been paid .

Bako , however , said he never received the funds as Ado continued to give him flimsy excuses .
He said he got frustrated and then wrote a petition to the EFCC.
The petitioner , however , said he was disappointed by the response of the EFCC.
He added, “ Some officials loyal to Abba Kyari refused to help me . I went to meet an official petitioner at Block C in the EFCC. He is very close to the acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu. The official asked me to bring the petition to him but by the time I got there , he had called Kyari to inform him of my presence .
“Abba Kyari called me on the phone to tell me that he knew I was at the EFCC. ”

Bako said he quickly changed his mind and decided not to use the EFCC any longer. He, however , said friends from whom he borrowed money began to pester him.
He said a friend decided to report him to a policeman , DSP Tijani Bulama. The petitioner said he explained the matter to Bulama and even gave him Abba Kyari’ s number to prove that he was telling the truth .
Bako said Kyari promised to return the money in a few days but never did. He added, “The policeman threatened to make the matter public, but the following day, men of the DSS stormed Tijani’s home and arrested him.

READ MORE - PUNCHNG