'I Never Promised To Return N5 Million' – PDP Ex-Chairman...

Joel Madaki, the former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Adamawa state, has denied reports that he promised to refund N5 million to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

According to Premium Times, Madaki’s name was among those listed to have received money from former petroleum minister Diezani Allison-Madueke for the 2015 presidential campaign. However, in a statement issued on Tuesday, May 31, in Yola, Madaki claimed that he had never made such promise to the anti-graft agency.

“I never promised to return the N5 million. “What I said was that if it is proven beyond reasonable doubt that the N5 million is from the presidential campaign fund and when it is discovered that it was not used for that purpose, then the Adamawa PDP secretariat and myself shall arrange to refund,” he said.

The PDP ex-chairman admitted that he had received N450 million as campaign fund for the state. However, he noted that the money was delivered to a “disbursement committee” at the government house in Yola, Madaki claimed that the committee had given the party only N5 million out of the money. “Since I was not a member of the distribution committee, as soon as the money was handed to the committee and they counted it to be correct, I left the venue,” he added.

Meanwhile, some investigators from the United Kingdom have come to Nigeria to gather more evidence against embattled former minister of petroleum resources.

Alison-Madueke is under investigation in the UK over the missing $20billion oil cash, phoney crude oil lifting contracts, $115million poll bribery money, the $1.092b Malabu oil deal and the N5.2billion ($25m) oil cash paid by an Indian oil firm for an oil block.