Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode has reacted to reports that he has been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on an alleged forgery.
According to the reports, Fan-Kayode was arrested on Tuesday by operatives of the EFCC over the allegations that he might well be deploying a contrived method between him and some medical personnel on the medical excuses to enable him evade trial.
“Just arrived at the George Hotel for dinner. I was never arrested by the EFCC. I was invited & I flew down to Lagos to see them. I arrived at their office at 2.00pm & left at 8.30pm. I was granted bail on self-recognition. They were very polite and professional. Thanks be to God.”
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The Lagos EFCC office is expecting Fani-Kayode on November 24, 2021, to answer questions on possible forgery of hospital documents to hoodwink the court handling the case against him on money-laundering allegations with a view to stalling the hearing.
The EFCC had on June 28, 2016, arraigned Fani-Kayode; Nenadi Usman, who was the Minister of State for Finance during the former president Goodluck Jonathan administration; Yusuf Danjuma, a former Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), and a limited liability company, Jointrust Dimensions Nig. Ltd. before Justice
Muhammed Aikawa on a 17-count charge of the N4.6 billion money laundering trial.
The defendants were alleged to have committed the offences between January and March 2015, shortly before Jonathan left office in May 2015 following his defeat to President Muhammadu Buhari in the presidential election. Fani-Kayode, who was the Director of Media and Publicity in the Jonathan government and a member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in September this year).
The defendants pleaded not guilty to all the counts and were granted bail.
In the charge, Fani-Kayode alone was accused of making payments to Paste Poster Co. of No. 125, Lewis Street, Lagos, above the maximum amount allowed by law. He was also said, in counts 15-17, together with one Olubode Oke, who is at large, to have made cash payments of about N130 million, in excess of the amount allowed by law.