Presidency defends Abba Kyari saying allegations made against him is the handiwork of politicians

PRESIDENCY officials have come to the defence of beleaguered chief of staff to the president Alhaji Abba Kyari claiming that he is innocent of allegations of collecting a N29m bribe to effect a supply contract and has no case to answer.

Last week, a gentleman known as Bako Waziri Kyari, who claimed to be a nephew to the chief of staff, said that Alhaji Kyari and one Sani Ado, who worked with the Bureau of Public Procurement, collected N29.9m from him in order to facilitate the award of a contract. According to Bako, he has not been paid for the contract and subsequently wrote a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) but the agency refused to address it, insisting that it could not investigate the president’s aide.

Bako claims that Alhaji Kyari asked him to pay the money into Mr Ado's account and he will be given 30% of the value of 15 Hilux buses which he is to supply to the presidency. Since the case went public, it appears that the EFCC has been embarrassed into acting, with its spokesman Wilson Uwujaren, saying that the case was being looked into.

However, Mallam Garba Shehu, President Muhammadu Buhari's spokesman, said that Alhaji Kyari did not have any private meetings with the person making those allegations. He added that with crucial elections ahead, some politicians and their media agents appear to be working together to pile pressure on the Buhari administration by fabricating non-existent scandals against it.

Mallam Shehu said: “We equally note that the supply of 15 Hilux vehicles for the presidency was an unlikely contract to have been awarded, as it did not exist anywhere in the 2016 and 2017 budgets. Checking the appropriation for 2016 and 2017, that request is not even there, so how could Abba Kyari have asked for money to award a contract that did not exist anywhere at all?

“In addition to that, the amount allegedly given in bribe was also suspicious, as the office of the presidential aide had been known in the past to receive an impress of N200m and above every month, with no one expected to give account. It was only since Abba Kyari occupied that position that things changed.

Adding that the allegations are political in nature, Mallam Shehu urged the media to investigate such claims before publishing them as they were planted. He defended Alhaji Kyari as a man who spurned big budgets in the past, so is not likely to be go looking for contracts.

“In blunt terms, it is difficult to make a case of N29m bribery against an official who spurned a monthly payment of N200m to his office, money for which he didn’t need to account to anyone. Once again, we wish to caution against the media’s haste to publish unverified accusations against government officials simply for the sensationalism value, without journalists doing the due diligence required of them by their profession,” Mallam Shehu added.