Former head of state, Yakubu Gowon, has told the BBC that an allegation by a British MP saying he stole “half of Nigeria’s Central Bank” was “rubbish.”

While debating the issue police brutality and Nigerian government’s highhandedness against #EndSARS protesters on Monday, Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, declared:

“Some people will remember when General Gowon left Nigeria with half the Central Bank of Nigeria, so it is said, and moved to London.”

Mr. Gowon however took exception to Mr. Tugendhat’s claim.

“I don’t know where he got that rubbish from, I served Nigeria diligently and my records are there for all to see,” the former Nigerian leader said.

Mr. Gowon ruled over Nigeria between 1967 to 1975 when he was removed in a bloodless coup. He supervised the country’s three-year civil war where about three million Nigerians, mostly from the Eastern part are believed to have been killed. His reign also witnessed a boom in oil revenue which many believe was squandered while prosecuting the war.

He moved to the UK after leaving power and studied political science and international relations at Warwick University.

Mr Tugendhat’s statement has since generated furore amongst young Nigerians online with many of them taking a swipe at Mr. Gowon and other Nigerian leaders who have in the past been caught looting the country’s commonwealth and staching it in foreign bank accounts.

A former Nigerian military leader, Sani Abacha has been found to have stolen millions of dollars in bank notes directly from the Nigerian Central Bank before he died suddenly in 1998. Many of the Abacha loot are still being repatriated from countries like Switzerland, U.S. and UK till date.

Speaking on the matter, African Development Bank chief Akinwunmi Adesina, however, warned people to be wary of “misinformation,” vouching for the integrity of Mr. Gowon.