N2.8bn Amnesty Cash: Nwuche Insists Kuku Received Money

By Tunde Oguntola

 

Former deputy dpeaker of the House of Representatives, Chibudum Nwuche, has challenged the immediate past Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Niger Delta, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, to return home and clear his name of fraud allegations, if he believes he is innocent.

Nwuche, who stated this in a statement made available to LEADERSHIP in Abuja by his organisation-The Foundation for Youth Development (FYD), said he was surprised that Kuku had denied requesting and collecting the sum of N2.8 billion from his company purportedly for the payment of stipends to ex-militants and stakeholders during his tenure.
In the statement signed by FYD’s media adviser, Mr. Ik Anyaduba, the company said that it was in possession of a plethora of evidence to prove that Kuku got the loan.

The statement said: “FYD has sued for the full recovery of this money from Kuku as it later learned that he may have indeed diverted the loans to personal use and left the country without proper handover of these and other liabilities he may have incurred while he was Special Adviser.
“Prior to these last contracts, FYD had successfully executed several projects for the Amnesty Programme without a hitch.
“We have our chairman’s full support to prosecute this matter to its logical conclusion as he has nothing to hide to fully support the anti-corruption war of the federal government and expose persons who use their official positions to
defraud innocent contractors and service providers, believing there will be no evidence against them.
“It is now obvious that we made a grave mistake in trusting and believing that he was as committed as we were to resolving the Niger Delta crisis and assisting in whatever way possible the stability of the region hence our granting the loans.


Leadership