Former Labour candidate Joe Cordina is insisting that he was not aware of what was going on in Aikon Limited, while accusing George Farrugia of keeping him in the dark about his fraudulent activity. He said that he only got to know about the case when he received a letter from the Farrugia family who informed him of their intention to file a civil case against his client.

Mr Cordina was speaking in Victoria Gozo during a special edition of ‘Affari Taghna under the Dome’ hosted by John Bundy, on One Television.

In his first public appearance following the revelations made by the finance minister on Thursday, he accused Tonio Fenech of lying and announced his intention to sue him for libel.

He said that he has never met George Farrugia and that his relationship with him was just on a professional basis since Intershore Fiduciary Service of which Mr Cordina was a director, was a nominee company for Aikon.

Mr Cordina who has also resigned as financial controller of the Labour Party said that prior to accepting Farrugia as his client, a due diligence exercise had been carried out to ensure that his conduct was clean. However once he became aware that Farrugia was receiving illegal commissions, he severed his links with him immediately.

Mr Cordina thanked Labour leader Dr Muscat for his support, and said that he decided to step down from the party and revoke his nomination for the general election, so as not to offer the PN the opportunity to attack the party on the brink of victory after all these years in opposition.

Turning his guns back onto the finance minister he said  “God forbid if this country has minister like Dr Fenech”.

On his part the Labour leader said that Joe Cordina showed great integrity with his decision to step down. He said that from yesterday’s news conference it transpired that Dr Fenech met Farrugia twice - once at his home and about an Enemalta tender. In the same manner he lied about the gift, and remarked that even if this had no value, the ministerial code of ethics prevents a cabinet member from accepting such things.

Dr Muscat said that this incident follows Austin Gatt’s declaration that he forgot about his Swiss Bank account.

The Labour leader concluded that all this highlights the need to clean local politics.