Posted by Festus Owete, Abuja on
The Israeli Embassy said on Thursday that it was not aware that the National Assembly contracted an accounting firm in the Asian country some years ago to monitor President Olusegun Obasanjo's financial transactions across the world, with a view to unearthing shady dealings.
The Israeli Embassy said on Thursday that it was not aware that the National Assembly contracted an accounting firm in the Asian country some years ago to monitor President Olusegun Obasanjo's financial transactions across the world, with a view to unearthing shady dealings.
The embassy's Deputy Head of Mission in Nigeria, Mr. Israel Strolov, told our correspondent in Abuja that the embassy was neither aware of the deal nor did it have the details.
President Obasanjo had on Tuesday alleged that early in the current democratic dispensation, the leadership of the National Assembly paid some Israeli accountants $250,000 to trace all his funds throughout the world.
According to the president, 'Very early in the life of the National Assembly, they hired a couple of forensic accountants from Israel to find out any corrupt information about me. Someone paid them $250,000. One of them told me. I said, ‘Instead of you spending the money, you should have come to me. I would have given all the information you wanted.'
'They just needed to have given me half of the money instead of going on a wild-goose chase. In this (anti-corruption) crusade, whether you are a friend or foe, the battle must go on. The war will continue."
Strolov, however, told our correspondent on telephone, 'We are not aware of the deal. We don't know about it. We don't have details of such deal before us."