Immediate past Special Adviser on Niger Delta and Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Hon. Kingsley Kuku, has asked anti-corruption agencies not to tamper with the account of his charity organisation, Keketobou Care Foundation, which he has been using to help the poor.
Kuku, who made the call in a telephone interview from his hospital in the United States on Sunday, said there was no public fund in the charity account, which has helped to render succour to indigent students, women and men over time.
Kuku was reacting to reports that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had frozen the accounts of close allies of former President Goodluck Jonathan, including the Keketobou Care Foundation.
The former presidential aide, who is recuperating in an American hospital after a knee surgery, said there were no government funds in the account, which had a total deposit of N720,484 as at the end of July this year.
According to Kuku, the amount found in the account was the proceeds from the launch of his book: “Remaking the Niger Delta: Challenges and Opportunities.”
He said before now, he had used his personal earnings and other donations by well-wishers to fund the account so as to provide enough funds for buying JAMB forms for poor indigenes of Ondo State and provide support to poor widows, women and traders in the state.
“I have always been using the Keketobou Care Foundation to help the poor and there is no evidence that the account has ever been funded with government money, as the records would show,” Kuku said.
He described as unfortunate any attempt by the EFCC or any other anti-craft agency to flag the account, saying that it was a politically-motivated move to implicate him and others who worked with Jonathan.
Kuku said while he was open and ready for investigation by the anti-graft agencies, it was wrong for anyone to try to cook up malicious and politically-motivated issues to smear his hard-earned reputation in a bid to suit predetermined goal.
Kuku said: “Keketobou Foundation has only N720,484 balance as at today. The proceeds of my published and launched book “Remaking the Niger Delta” went in there for charity purposes as a public officer.
“It gave free JAMB forms to applicants, financial/material support to the aged, widows and the physically challenged and helped in the local rehabilitation of walkways and drainages in my birth-place/town, Arogbo, Ondo State in the determined spirit to give back to my final place of return in life.
“The publication is false, untrue, malicious and politically-motivated to smear my hard-earned reputation. What on earth links my face to the alleged story about NIMASA?
“It is still all part of the anti-Jonathan onslaught. I am open to investigation as a public officer but ongoing distortion by agencies and some section of the media creates in the heart of it all suspicion of witch-hunt and bad politics.
“I hope no desperate elements would deposit illicit funds into the Foundation’s account to implicate me because the full details of the account from opening to date are with us.
“Again, what links this foundation to their so-called alleged sleaze of billions and phantom security claims? I sincerely smell a rat. Finally, it’s not my account but a foundation’s account,” Kuku claimed.
