Posted by By KUNLE OWOLABI on
Major Moji Obasanjo reacted to the allegations levelled against her by dismissing it as untrue, insisting that only a sick man could accuse her of embezzling her party's funds.
Only a mad man can accuse me of embezzlement -Moji
Major Moji Obasanjo reacted to the allegations levelled against her by dismissing it as untrue, insisting that only a sick man could accuse her of embezzling her party's funds.
The presidential candidate of the Masses Movement of Nigeria (MMN) said besides his accuser not being a member of his party but an imposter, he certainly needs a psychiatric evalution, adding,
'He is an impersonator. He is a fraudster, a political tout, who has been using our political party to deceive people."
She also shed light on the incident that led to the arrest of Idris and seven others by the FCT Police command, claiming they had come to assassinate her.
Excerpt:
The national General Secretary of your party alleged that you could not account for N34 million belonging to the party. Is this true?
Is he now the auditor of INEC? I am asking you a question the way you have asked me a question. You should have asked him if his now the auditor general of INEC. I think it is only the INEC that can ask us how we spent or diverted the money it gave to us. Is he one of INEC auditors? The people can easily be used especially when they are very poor. Some people will just give them money and say go and disrupt that place. But nobody can destroy Masses Movement of Nigeria or Masses Consumer Trust. Both institutions were divinely set up by God. I am the founder the two. I formed them in 1990 after my retirement from the Nigerian Army. They started as non-governmental organisations. By that time I did not know this man who has now become INEC auditor.
He claimed the party had written to INEC and EFCC over the matter?
Is EFCC the auditor of INEC? He even complained as if I was a governor or a chairman of a local government, who embezzled funds entrusted in my care. You know I have to be using questions to answer questions. You know I am a psychologist, a medical doctor that specialises in diagnosis, both therapeutic and diagnostic. We have so many cases of people who should be in psychiatric home but are now in high places, holding political offices. From what he has just told you, do you think any normal person can say what he said? Even a stark illiterate cannot just wake up and say I have gone to report to the EFFC and INEC. Who gave him appointment in Masses Movement? Let him bring his certificate and his authority.
Is he not the secretary general of your party?
I never met him in my life until I went for declaration in Kaduna. None of our members knew this man until after the welcome celebration the Kaduna people organised for me. I was given the title of Zaruniya Talakawa (a female warrior fighting the course of the poor people). When we finished the ceremony, the district head of the 43 serikis and I went inside to discuss. I was about to leave when this man (Musa Idris) came. He said he was a member of the Masses Movement. He showed me a paper on which he wrote about the movement. I asked who he was. He said his wife heard my voice on Radio Kaduna on a programme. He said he tried to get Ibrahim Muhammed (my running mate in 2003 presidential election) to introduce him to me. He said he had office he is paying for, that I should come and see it. I told him I was not in Kaduna for that. You see, all these are signs and symptoms of psychiatric problem. That was how this man came from no where. He said he has been fighting for the masses and has captured the whole of the North. I said if you have captured the whole of the North, we have done that since 2003. He persuaded us to go and see his office. We went. He put the party's banner, which I gave to Muhammed, in front of the office. Later, I told him we were going to Kano. He said he would go too so that he would introduce us to one Labaran. I said who is Labaran? He replied that Labaran was the Masses Movement of Nigerian (MMN) chairman in Kano. I said, ‘How could you be talking like this when I, the founder of the party does not know you?
Are you trying to say this man is not a member of your party?
No, he is not. He is an impersonator. He is a fraudster, a political tout, who has been using our political party to deceive people.
But he said he contested the governorship of Kaduna on the platform of MMN?
Tell him to bring his papers. You should ask him some questions. Somebody cannot just tell you rubbish. Assuming he contested in Kaduna, you can go to INEC to find out if his name is on the list of the MMN contestants. You are supposed to have checked that out before bothering to come to me. You can hold political office by mouth. You must have evidence. We have our certificate here, both for the MMN and the Masses Trust.
He also alleged that on a particular occasion, INEC gave you a cheque of N8.4 million and they came to ask for it but you phoned the police that armed robbers came to attack you. Is this true?
Why is he interested in the money that INEC gave us if he is not a fraudster? We are the only political party that rendered account to INEC for three years. When people come to you, there are some things you should ask them. If it is my former running mate (Muhammed) that is saying this, I can understand. But somebody will just come and tell you something and you will come to me to reply that person? How can I reply a mad man when I am not mad myself?
But did you call police to arrest them, including your former running mate?
Can you see that he has a psychiatric problem? Do you know how I arrested them? In 2003, INEC gave us N3 million and then N6 million. Then we did not even know we were entitled to anything. All the money I was spending was my personal money. We were levying ourselves that time. Every member paid N20.The more the members the richer we became. When INEC gives you money, they will send auditors to you and we will tender our papers to them. On one occasion, INEC gave us N4.8 million and the auditor gave a condition that before they would allow us to collect the money we would pay N800, 000. All the other political parties compromised. I did not. I said no way, my husband can't be the president and he is fighting corruption with EFCC and ICPC and I will be condoning corruption. I refused. I collected that cheque and opened an account in Union Bank of Nigeria in 2003.
We did not collect a cheque and pay it into any other person's account, not even the Masses Consumers Trust not to talk of a personal account. I have been operating current account since 1972 when I was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Nigerian Army. Unless you have a current account, the army will not pay you your salary. So, I shouted out to the world. I said, ‘Come and see what is happening in INEC. They want to destroy the government of my husband, especially, this coming election.'
The auditor in charge of the MMN's money quickly caved in and said, ‘Don't shout, we will give you your money.' That was how we collected that N4.8 million. When the N8.4 million now came, INEC contracted it to one Tony Ogbulafor. That Ogbulafor is a legal adviser to Umaru Dikko's party. They told us to bring N890, 000. Again, all other 49 political parties compromised. I saw Ogbulafor's signboard and went there to challenge him. He said is it because I am Obasanjo's wife? I said what about that? I said all the cheques we got in 2002 were issued to us through the Central Bank but with this Soludo syndrom, we do not know what is happening again.
When I decided to embarrass the INEC and Ogbulafor, the INEC Chairman, Maurice Iwu and Ogbulafor now went and contracted this Musa Idris and his ilk. All of them now came in like hired assassins to kidnap me. It was when I went to attend a programme at the ECOWAS Secretariat that they came to round me up. But I had to use my number six military sense. That day, I could not shout being the only female presidentail candidate.
If I shouted people would abuse me. They would not know what happened. So, I decided not to talk. I told a journalist about it but said it was not meant for publication . I told him that I knew how to escape because I had served in the suicide squad in the military. To escape that type of attack is even very easy.
Those people were hired assassins. When Muhammadu Buhari invited me for a presidential campaign for us to come together at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, it was there that they came to attack me again. Already, I had given authority to one Isa Dan Sarki because the other secretary, who called himself Barrister Idris Alabi, had stopped attending our meetings. I did not know that they were all ganging up against me.
They were all broke. Everybody is poor. But even if you want to collect money, won't you collect it through normal channel? Is this money theirs? Is it mine? So, they came to Transcorp. Papa Olapade Agoro was there. They said I should sign that they had collected the cheque and that they would open an account on behalf of MMN in Abuja. They said they had selected one Yahaya Abdullahi as the sole signatory.
I said they should write the letter and I would sign. By then we had moved to Le Meridien Hotel for a think-tank meeting. There they brought what they wrote for me to sign. They said they would open account in Zenith Bank. I said no. They insisted. Since I knew that they were hired assassins,two wrongs could not make a right. I pretended like a fool. But I said ‘The bank we use in the whole country is First Bank if it is Masses Consumer Trust. If it is MMN, it is Union Bank for easy transfer of money from one state to the other. However, if you insist on Zenith Bank no problem but you will give me acknowledgement copy.'
Then, the cheque was with them. They had already seized it when we were in Transcorp Hilton Hotel.
They threatened to drag me in front of Transcorp before they would kill me. The Deputy Presidential candidate of National Conscience Party, who was sent to pick me from Transcorp to Le Meridien witnessed the incident. He even persuaded me to give them the cheque because those people were terrible. I said, ‘What am I doing with the cheque? I asked Isa if he had collected the cheque. He said ‘Yes.' I told him to give if to them. He said no he would not because he was the only one who suffered to collect it. I later collected it from Isa and gave it to Tanko who gave it to these people.
They later came with the letter the following morning. I also signed it and told them to bring my copy. In the evening, they came. I had left a message with the officials that I was not expecting any visitor and so, nobody should come near my door. Shortly after, I heard a knock on my door. I looked through the keyhole and saw one Muhamed Muhammed and this Idris and another one.
I saw these three. I did not know that they were about eight. It was the security downstairs that prevented all of the from coming up. When I saw them, did you know what I did? I phoned the hotel security. I am a military officer. Four security men came up. They knocked and I looked through the key and saw them. I opened. Two of them came in, two waited outside. I told the security personnel what happened. They asked me what they wanted. I said they were trailing me and that I had given them the N8.4 million cheque they wanted to collect. So, I told the security personnel to arrest them. They could not.
They told me to use the letterhead of the hotel to write to the head of the hotel security. I quickly did that. All this while, the security personnel did not talk to them. So, two left, two stood at the door with these hoodlums. The five people downstairs were first rounded up as the police came to the hotel. This Idris was their gang leader. That was how the police came to arrest eight of them. People at the hotel were embarrassed that some people could threaten and even try to kill the only female presidential candidate.
Are you aware that you have been suspended from the party?
By who? Who suspended me?
Idris said the National Executive?
Who are the executives? Don't say what this man said because I have described him as a crazy man. You don't expect me to respond to a mad man. As I have told you, he is a fraudster. Only God knows how many people he must have defrauded using MMN.
Since when did you know him to be a fraudster?
I am a psychologist. I can put two and two together.
If you knew him as a fraudster all this while, why couldn't you expel him from your party?
I could not expel him because he is not a member of my party. Or did I tell you he is a member?
Are you saying he is impersonating, using your party's name?
Thank you. He is an impersonator, using the name of MMN to defraud people since 2003. Maybe, the God of the masses wanted to catch him that brought him to me in Kaduna at the narayi that day.
Idris also alleged that since INEC registered MMN, you did not convene a single meeting of the party and that you ran the party like a personal fiefdom?
How can somebody who is not a member of my organisation question my authority? Is that possible? We hold meetings here every Saturday. It was only last year that I stopped it because I was going round the six geo-political zones of the country.
And you did not see Idris for once?
How can I see somebody I have never met in my life? You can see now that they are hired assassins, touts, who are parading INEC's office defrauding people. They can do it and get away with it with other political parties. They can't get away with my party because we started as an NGO and all our members, who started with us as NGO then are still our members till tomorrow. So, this man is not our member and I don't know him. He claimed Muhammed brought him into this party in 2003.
Do you suspect that somebody is sponsoring them to discredit you?
Not to discredit but threat to life, assassination, that is the case with the police in Abuja. The FCT Police Commissioner, Lawrence Alobi (rtd), was the one handling it. All of them were in detention for over three weeks. In fact, it was the police that later took the cheque from them.
Who could their sponsors be?
How do I know that when I am not God? It is only God that knows everything. I only suspect Maurice Iwu and Ogbulafor. It was Iwu that gave contract cheque to Ogbulafor for all political parties to go there and collect.
In short, the alleged embezzlement of N34 million is not true?
At all. Who is to confirm that allegation? Is it not only INEC? Go to INEC and find out. They have the records. They are the one to tell you. Who can sack a national president according to the constitution? You know we were sort of made legal by the Supreme Court. After the constitution, the next power groups in the country are the political parties, because they were registered by the constitution.