A former Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Doyin Okupe, has confirmed that he received N100m from ex-National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd).

The former presidential aide in a Facebook post on Sunday spoke on his arrest and interrogation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Okupe said, “The initial N50m was approved by the President to be paid to me from his security vote. N10m was to furnish my rented living apartment and another N10m for my office. The balance N30m was approved as take-off grant.

“The N10m I received from the ONSA monthly was to run my office, pay salaries of staff, including overheads, pay expenses for our numerous press conferences, pay for publications in newspapers, magazines, local and foreign, television programmes, bulletins, and media consultants who assist and facilitate our work. I had about 23 staff, 11 were graduates out of which five were master’s degree holders.

“The second N50m was approved again by Mr. President when I reported to him that the monthly allowance had been cut from N10m to N5m and that I was no longer in position to keep running a one-hour NTA network programme called INSIGHT which was aired 9-10am every Friday.

“We paid NTA about N1.2m monthly for airtime. Two presenters were paid N600,000 monthly. We paid for tapes and editing per programme. Besides we also pay honorarium for guests either directly or in form of hotel bills for those outside Abuja, or transportation.

“This cost averagely N500,000 weekly or about N2m monthly. All in all we spend about N4m monthly on the programme. Mr. President promised to help with the expenses. About a few months later when we had incurred some debts the NSA sent me this N50m which was to cover the cost of the programme for 12 months.”

Okupe also reacted to a N76.5m contract he got from a local council in Niger State.

He explained that his company, Romix soilfix, was one of the over 20 construction companies who were duly awarded contracts for rural roads some five years ago by the State.

“The job is still ongoing. The relationship of this to my service as senior special assistant to President is still not clear,” Okupe said.

Okupe further confirmed that he suffered a heart problem.

“I was born with sinus bradycadia, a non-disease based slowness of the heart. It precluded me from vigorous exercise from childhood but I have by God’s grace been able to live a normal and active life.

“With age, the slowness grew worse and life threatening. I sought medical help and went through a procedure at the Arrhythmia Cardiac Research Centre in Atlanta, where this defect was corrected. It was just a year ago and I am still under satellite monitor from the USA. This is what I revealed to the EFCC and they made it a public issue.”