MTN N500m bribe: Police demand evidence as Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Kyari denies allegation

Following the directive issued to the Police by President Muhammadu Buhari, to unravel bribery allegations against his Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, the Police have swung into action.
Kyari was accused of allegedly taking N500 million bribe from MTN, to reduce N1 trillion fine imposed on it by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for failing to disconnect subscribers with unregistered phone lines.
It was gathered that Kyari has already made statement to an investigation team headed by a top police officer mandated by the Presidency to investigate the matter and recommend disciplinary actions.

Appearing before the Special Investigation Panel, SIP, Kyari reportedly denied receiving the bribe.
Similarly, MTN officials, who also made statements to the SIP, equally denied ever giving bribe.
“Officials of MTN, who were invited and interviewed over the allegation, have vehemently denied that any such money emanated from the telecommunications company and that, since the beginning of the $5billion fine saga, nobody had been approached for bribe,” a source told Vanguard.
“The top aide of the President, who also honoured the summon of the SIP, distanced himself from reports claiming that he ever collected the said huge sum of money from the telecoms firm.

“I think the matter may just die naturally if the online medium which made the allegation does not show up and give credible evidence that the affected official ever demanded and collected the bribe”.
“It is our strong position that if such volume of money was paid through the banks, it would have been very easy to trace. It would have been possible to see where the money emanated from, and where it ended.
“But the problem is that the online medium that raised the alarm has refused to honour our numerous invitations to shed light on the matter”.
Recall that the NCC had also ‎denied receiving bribe from MTN.
Minister of Industries, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah, has also denied any involvement with the ‎alleged repatriation of $13.9bn by MTN.
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