Senator Danjuma Goje representing Gombe Central at the National Assembly has denied ever being charged for corruption totaling N25 billion.
The senator, in a statement on Thursday by his lawyer, Paul Erokoro, described the claim as “inaccurate and untrue.”
The lawmaker’s counsel was addressing media reports which alleged that corruption charges against Mr Goje were withdrawn following his decision to step down from the Senate presidency race in June.
Erokoro said the actual amount mentioned in the charge was N9 billion.
“The so-called ‘N25b fraud’ that has been bandied about in the media, never featured in the case. The sum total of all the monies mentioned in the charge was about N8b,” the statement said.
“Of that total, N5billion was a loan taken from Access Bank for completion of infrastructural projects such as the Gombe airport, waterworks, numerous roads, Gombe Jewel Hotels, schools, hospitals and rural electrification.
“The bank testified in Court that the money was properly utilised for the projects. The EFCC investigators also confirmed to the Court that the projects were all completed.”
On the N1 billion agricultural loan, he said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had testified in court that the loan was utilised in full compliance with the bank’s loan conditions.
The lawyer said all the 19 counts of the charge around the above monetary issues collapsed during the trial.
He added that the Attorney-General of the Federation withdrew the charges after taking over the case from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) because of the embarrassing nature of the two remaining counts and not on political negotiation as being speculated.
