How Femi Fani-kayode Swindled Jonathan, Journalists

The story of the arrest of former director of publicity for ex-president Goodluck Jonathan Campaign in the 2015 general elections in Nigeria did not come to many people as a surprise. People had expected that FFK, as Femi is fondly called, should not be allowed to go scot free with his alleged looting of money meant for the publicity of the campaign and other sundry matters, which they alleged he cornered and spent for his personal needs.
Now, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is set to prosecute FFK over allegation that he diverted about N1.5 Billion released to him through the office of the then National Security Adviser (NSA),  to handle the publicity of the election for Jonathan.
He was arrested few weeks back, but was later granted bail with conditions, reports however, revealed that Femi was yet to be released from the EFCC custody as at the time we went to press last week.
Inside sources disclosed that Femi was completely broke before he went back to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and that he found it hard to survive save for supports from some close friends, and that he had less than N200,000 (two hundred thousand naira) in his bank account before he got the appointment from Jonathan
“He had to sell some of the asset of his family in Apapa, Lagos to survive. Things were really bad for him. He almost turned a beggar. It was just as if God wanted to rehabilitate him, when he got the appointment to handle the publicity of the election for former president Goodluck Jonathan,” said a source.

According to informants, Femi thought the likes of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and former governor Babatunde  Fashola would rehabilitate him in Lagos, when he was a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), but reports said that they never trusted him and that he never got invited into any serious meeting.
A source said that Tinubu once instructed that anytime FFK was around, they should always make him comfortable by the poolside and then leave him there before going in for strategic meetings.
It was reliably gathered that even the friends he made while in the government of ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo such as Malam Nuhu Ribadu, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Akin Osuntokun amongst others couldn’t stand his shifty character and that they only tolerated him when he was with them.
“Some of his friends were aghast and wondered what could’ve warranted him ditching his Ghanaian wife, Regina. What he could have done to warrant her moving back to Ghana. FFK, who had always eulogized her for standing by him, whilst he was undergoing drug rehabilitation and Bible study in Ghana, impregnating Igbo-born, fair-skinned, Precious Chikwendu, who gave birth to his only boy,” a source told us.
Those that are close to him informed us that while most of his celebrated friends have settled homes, he was either at war with his ex wives or even children.
What makes the matter worse for the embattled politician is that some of his friends in the media are also accusing him of ‘chopping alone’ during his ‘harvest’ period with Jonathan as they alleged that he didn’t pay for services rendered at his behest.
He was said to have ditched those, who even served him faithfully like rotten vegetables, and we learnt that he bought cars and luxury gifts for his female friends.

“At the dying days when publicity was required, he was giving money to women to supply souvenirs such as clocks, wrist watches and others.
“His CSO was a known APC man, but he turned down all good publicity proposals and spent so much of whatever he could corner to himself,” another source said.
The whole of the press were said to be disenchanted with FFK because they alleged that all he did was call press conferences, where he would be talking about who is sleeping with whose house girl and calling APC homosexual government, and that he had no substance in his press releases, and, according to them, he refused to dole out money for the needed publicity.
”Infact, I attended one press conference where at the end, the pressmen were silent. When asked if they had any questions, they said, ‘we have heard everything. No questions.’  Imagine, this was when I knew GEJ was in trouble,” a source revealed, adding that Femi was very haughty and arrogant and that he was like an unreachable god all along.
Some of those, who spoke about his activities, then said that if he claimed that he spent enough money on publicity he should show receipts and signed documents.
A source told us that there was a time he wanted to see Femi , but that he waited for four hours and that yet Femi refused to see  him.
“The useless local man, who called himself the CSO or whatever, was even rude to me. I was standing for four whole hours even with a letter from Dr. Doyin Okupe that I had a proposal that could have changed the game. FFK was not interested in any re-election as far as I’m concerned.
“The boys he worked with, he didn’t pay them well compared to what he had. Whereas Ifeanyi  Uba had close to 30 or more young social media activists, FFK had a handful, maybe about five. They worked their ass off, yet he paid them peanuts,” he said.
Sources said that FFK did not even rent an office and that he was using Chief Tony Anenih’s office in Asokoro Area of the Federal Capital Territory.
We learnt further that it was Doyin Okupe that recommended Femi for the job, and that yet he blacklisted Okupe’s people, refused to honour a letter with Federal Government’s seal from Okupe, and that Okupe provided his boys to assist FFK’s campaign office.
“The people who ate GEJ’s election money were people who didn’t work for it, like all the hooligans FFK brought in the dying days of the government. That’s why they are paying him back because nobody is happy with the way Jonathan was betrayed. Not even GEJ is happy and I won’t be surprised if he is behind their travails,” said a source.
Those who knew much about the whole development said that Sambo Dasuki did far better than FFK with reference to the fact that he, at least, disbursed money to mainstream media, but that FFK disbursed nothing, and accused him of spending money on women and frivolities.
With all these intimidating allegations, opinion watchers said that Femi Fani-Kayode has bitten more than he could chew and that he should be ready to pay the price of being extravagant, reckless, selfish and unreliable with few regards for ethical standards.