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Turkey Implicates UBA in Failed Coup, Nigerian Bank Reacts

Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan has moved from implicating almost 70, 000 Turks and institutions in the failed “coup” of July 15 to roping in a big Nigerian bank. Yenisafak, one of the few newspapers left standing since the “coup”, has alleged that the United Bank for Africa (UBA) was used to distribute  a total of $2billion to those who staged the coup.

UBA has denied the attempt to link it to the situation in Turkey. Charles Aigbe, head of communications at UBA, in a statement issued in Lagos on Tuesday said “we believe it is necessary to categorically state that UBA has no involvement in or connection to these accusations, which are clearly false.”  The bank said it remains focused and firmly committed to its goal of building Africa’s premier banking institution.

A report in Yenisafak suggested that CIA operatives transferred millions of dollars from Nigeria to Turkey within six months. The funds, it said, were relayed by an “80-person special team of the CIA” and used to win over the generals predisposed to the coup, led by John Campbell, former U.S. commander of a NATO-led security mission in Afghanistan.

“Campbell also managed more than $2 billion money transactions via UBA Bank in Nigeria by using CIA links to distribute among the pro-coup military personnel in Turkey. After taking money from their bank accounts, the CIA team hand-delivered it to the terrorists under the military dresses,” it said.

President Erdogan had pointed fingers at respected Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who is on self-exile in America, as the sponsor of the “coup”, a charge the Gulen Movement has vehemently denied.

The Yenisafak report also suggested that American intelligence, military and other institutions supported Gülen “and his gangs” for the military coup.

Close to 70, 000 Turks have been sacked from their jobs or detained in the past two weeks. Among them are about 100 generals.

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