Jonathan told Dasuki to give me N100m – Ex President’s aide says

chika ebuzor

July 17, 2016 6:53 PM

Okupe also added that he received N10m monthly from Dasuki to pay salaries and run a program on the Nigerian Televison Authority (NTA).

Doyin Okupe

Okupe also added that he received N10m monthly from Dasuki to pay salaries and run a program on the Nigerian Televison Authority (NTA).

The EFCC grilled Okupe following revelations from their investigations, that undefinedbut was later allowed to go home on health grounds.

Punch reports that he said “I was born with sinus bradycadia, a non-disease based slowness of the heart. It precluded me from vigorous exercise from childhood but I have by God’s grace been able to live a normal and active life.

“With age the slowness grew worse and life threatening. I sought medical help and went through a procedure at the Arrhythmia Cardiac Research Centre in Atlanta, where this defect was corrected. It was just a year ago and I am still under satellite monitor from the USA. This is what I revealed to the EFCC and they made it a public issue.”

Shedding more light on the funds he allegedly collected from the former NSA, Okupe said “The initial N50m was approved by the President to be paid to me from his security vote. N10m was to furnish my rented living apartment and another N10m for my office. The balance N30m was approved as take-off grant.

“The N10m I received from the ONSA monthly was to run my office, pay salaries of staff, including overheads, pay expenses for our numerous press conferences, pay for publications in newspapers, magazines, local and foreign, television programmes, bulletins, and media consultants who assist and facilitate our work. I had about 23 staff, 11 were graduates out of which five were master’s degree holders.

“The second N50m was approved again by Mr. President when I reported to him that the monthly allowance had been cut from N10m to N5m and that I was no longer in position to keep running a one-hour NTA network programme called INSIGHT which was aired 9-10am every Friday.

“We paid NTA about N1.2m monthly for airtime. Two presenters were paid N600,000 monthly. We paid for tapes and editing per programme. Besides we also pay honorarium for guests either directly or in form of hotel bills for those outside Abuja, or transportation.

“This cost averagely N500,000 weekly or about N2m monthly. All in all we spend about N4m monthly on the programme. Mr. President promised to help with the expenses. About a few months later when we had incurred some debts the NSA sent me this N50m which was to cover the cost of the programme for 12 months.”

Adding that his company, Romix soilfix, also bidded for, and won a contract for the construction of rural roads in Niger State worth N76.5m.

He also said the job has not been completed due to lack of funds.

Okupe said “The job is still ongoing. The relationship of this to my service as senior special assistant to President is still not clear.”

Dr. Doyin Okupe was the Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to former President Goodluck Jonathan from 2010 – 2015.

chika ebuzor