$2.1bn arms deal scandal: I only received $30,000 from Yuguda as logistics for PDP reconciliation meetings' - Bode George

Former Deputy National Chairman of PDP, Bode
George, who has been implicated in the current
$2.1 billion arms deal scandal, has denied claims
of collecting N100 million from former Minister of
state for Finance Bashir Yuguda. According to him, what he collected from Yuguda was $30,000 meant for logistics of some PDP elders who were
charged to reconcile warring factions in the party.
He said this in a statement he released yesterday.
Read the statement below:

“My attention has been drawn to another mischievous and deliberately fraudulent
claim that I collected N100 million from Bashir Yuguda, the former Minister of State
for Finance. This is another blatant falsehood, stripped of any iota of truth. This
is yet again a depraved continuation of lynch mob journalism orchestrated by an
online newspaper. The salient fact is that very early this year, long before the election
period, the partyparty 7th set up Contact and Mobilization Committee for each zone to
reconcile various factions and ensure a firm unity of purpose within the zones before the
election. I was elected as the Chairman for the South-West zone.

The committee which
was made up of 18 senior members of the party with distinguished history of honour
and exemplary leadership, met at least 10 times in my office in Lagos. These people
travelled all the way from every corner of the South-West, with three members representing each state. All of them are very much alive to testify to my assertions.

Sometime in the middle of these
deliberations, Yuguda came to me and said the party was reimbursing the 18 elders of
the committee for their transportation, accommodation and feeding allowance for
the work that was done. The committee later submitted the report of its deliberations to the party and then wound up. For all these efforts Yuguda gave the
committee only $30,000. That was less than N6 million at that time.

Yuguda can never claim that he gave the Committee N100 million. That is the figment of the imagination of rascally scribblers purporting
to be journalists. Again, facts are sacred.”