Barely 24 hours after her dramatic four-hour ‘detention’ inside the banking hall, wife of former Aviation Minister, Precious Fani-Kayode, has debunked the claim of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that her frozen account contains N2.3 million.
Mrs. Fani-Kayode in a statement made available to reporters on Tuesday also denied that the account domiciled at Access Bank was being used to launder funds for the Goodluck Jonathan Presidential Campaign Organization as alleged by the anti-graft agency.
She was not notified about the freezing of the account until someone paid N200,000 into it on Saturday. The money, according to her, entered the account but after that it could not be accessed.
The said account, she added, was opened in 2005 at Onitsha when Precious Chikwendu (as she was then known) was about to start at the University of Calabar.
Mrs. Fani-Kayode said: “At that time it was not known as Access Bank but Intercontinental Bank. The account was used by her from 2005 till 2012 when it was abandoned and went dormant.
“It was not utilised or activated again until August 2016 when small deposits of between N200,000 and N500,000 were made into it and the total amount that entered into that account over a period of 2 months was approximately N4 million naira.
“The money was spent on looking after the family, paying staff salaries and to buy groceries. Consequently at the time that the account was frozen last Friday, the amount that was left in it was N95,000.”
The woman revealed that she decided to stop at the bank on her way out of Ado Ekiti on Monday in order to know what was going on and she was then detained and offered to the police and EFCC, together with her 8 month old son Aragorn, for arrest.
She said the total amount that was in the account at the time of the arrest was N295,000 naira which is approximately 600 USD.
This, according to her, is reflected in the screenshot (attached to the statement) together with the relevant dates.
Mrs. Fani-Kayode said: “How Wilson (Uwujaren) of the EFCC arrived at his figure of N2.3million being in the account at the time of arrest is mind-boggling and absurd.
“It is nothing but a shameless and barefaced lie and he and the organization that he works for are nothing but pernicious liars.
“It is equally absurd to suggest that the said account had anything to do with Jonathan Campaign funds or Dasuki NSA funds given the fact that the said account was not even active or functional between 2012 right up until August 2016.
“The Presidential campaign took place in 2015 and at that time the account was dormant. At the time that she abandoned and stopped using the account in 2012 Precious Chikwendu had not even met Chief Fani-Kayode.
“The lies of the EFCC on this matter are sickening and they are wicked and sadistic people. Wilson’s assertions are just one example of such lies.
“The only reason that Precious Chikwendu’s bank accounts were frozen and she was subjected to such inhuman treatment is because she is married to Chief Femi Fani-Kayode who is a politician and a leading member of the opposition.
“They wanted to punish her and their 8 month old son Aragorn just to hurt and spite Chief Fani-Kayode.”
She concluded: “Finally let me add this. It is not true that Precious Chikwendu has 17 accounts in GTB. This is another dirty EFCC lie.
“I have one current account with a merged savings account in GTB which was opened in 2012. Outside of that I have a dollar account and a pounds sterling account with the same bank which were all opened on the same day in 2012.
“None of these accounts have any connection whatsoever with public funds or with Chief Femi Fani-Kayode and neither was any GTB BVN linked to his. Again on this issue the EFCC lied.
“Neither is it true that the EFCC were not at the bank in Ado Ekiti to arrest me because three of their operatives were actually there manning the bank door with their identity cards pinned to their jackets. They were backed by five fully armed policemen in uniform.”
