Fresh calls for new Nama probe

Following a documentary broadcast by the BBC Spotlight programme on Monday night, political leaders have called for a number of businessmen and DUP figures to explain their roles.

One of the businessmen at the centre of the controversy, Frank Cushnahan, was covertly recorded last year claiming that he was due to be paid a ‘fixer fee’ in relation to the £1.3 billion sale.

Mr Cushnahan, who was an adviser to Nama, has consistently denied he was in line to receive any money.

Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt said the affair “calls into question the judgment of those at the very heart of Northern Ireland’s political institutions”.

Mr Nesbitt said: “The whiff of foul play and skulduggery will continue to haunt the body politic at Stormont until all the facts are known about the Nama scandal and the police investigation is completed.”

TUV leader Jim Allister said the “thread of leading DUP ministers which runs through this story leaves the DUP with some explaining to do,” while the SDLP’s Alex Attwood called for former first minister Peter Robinson to be “recalled by the Assembly finance committee before the end of this mandate” to provide further information.

Naomi Long of Alliance described accusations of “deliberate wrongdoing” from several quarters as “particularly troubling”.

Sinn Fein deputy first minister Martin McGuinness called for a Commission of Investigation to establish the full facts of the events leading up to the sale of the portfolio.

He added: “The Assembly’s finance committee has been conducting its own inquiry but a number of the key players in these events have refused to give evidence.”