The Vice President in a statement released by his media aide, Laolu
Akande, reeled out some of the groundbreaking corrupt practices that
took place during the Goodluck Jonathan administration. Read the
statement below abeg
WE have read reports attributed to “a media office of former
President Goodluck Jonathan”. It is clear from the foul language of the
authors that the statement could not have come from the former
President, but from the motley group of loud and rude characters whose
brief seems to be to deny all and anything said against the former PDP
government and to do so in the crassest possible language.
The alleged spokespersons of the former President say that facts long
in the public domain, some even being used to prosecute several
corruption cases are lies and that those of us in government restating
these well known facts are liars.
They accuse Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, of lying against the
former President or his government citing their involvement in the
stealing of three billion dollars, while speaking recently at The
Platform event on the 1st of May.
Just for clarity, I quote the Vice President “Grand corruption
remains the most enduring threat to our economy. Three Billion US
dollars was stolen in what was called the strategic alliance contacts in
2013, three Nigerians were responsible, today three billion dollars is
one trillion Naira and our budget is 7trillion! ....” ..( link)
Two issues emerge. First, no mention is made of the former President.
Second, the story is not only true, it has been in the public domain
for almost three years and it is the subject of criminal investigation
and trials both here and in the UK.
The spokespersons also say that the allegations of corruption against
the PDP government are mere lies. For clarity, the facts are laid out
as follows:
As the Vice President said, $3B was stolen in the so- called NNPC
Strategic Alliance Contracts. The three persons involved are Jide
Omokore, Kola Aluko and the former Petroleum Resources Minister Diezani
Alison- Maduekwe. The companies of both Jide Omokore and Kola Aluko
lifted Nigerian crude oil and kept the proceeds. The total sums
converted is in excess of three billion dollars including royalties,
taxes and fees unpaid for the asset from which the crude was taken. The
case is the subject of a trial in Nigeria, and criminal investigation in
the US and UK, and the assets of all three individuals have been
forfeited in Nigeria, the US and the UK.
2. The criminal diversion and theft of sums in excess of $2.5 billion
meant for purchase of arms to prosecute the war against Boko Haram: The
first phase of the investigations revealed several sordid details, many
of the assets of culprits have been seized from them and they are
facing trial.
3.The release of the sum of $289m in cash on February 25, 2015:
Documents including cash vouchers indicate that the the sum of
$289,202,382 was taken from the Joint Venture (JV) Cash Call Account No.
000-0000-11658-366 of the NNPC/NAPIMS with JP Morgan Chase Bank, New
York, USA.
4. N70 billion was released in parts from the national treasury between January 8 and February 25, 2015.
5.In another illegal disbursement, 25th August 2014, N60B in cash in
tranches of N40billion and N20billion: The sum was not tied to any
project or procurement and was then shared between two security agencies
under the supervision of the then NSA. Most of these sums ended up in
the hands of senior PDP members some of whom have returned parts of the
loot. Some are standing trial for these offenses. These facts are in the
public domain.
6. There was yet another set of illegal fund withdrawals under one
week between January 8and 16, 2015, where the sum of N1.5 billion was
released in three tranches of N300m, N400m and N800m respectively. This
money was released from the MEA Research Library Account .
7. Another document showed that N10 billion was released to the
Office of the National Security Adviser by the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN) on September 15, 2014. The money was
released in tranches of foreign exchange of $47 million, $5 million, 4
million Euros and 1.6 million Euros. A letter from the Office of the
NSA in November 2014 further showed that the monies were released as
‘funds for special services’. This particular release of N10B was
sourced in November 2014 from a N40 Billion CBN released funds meant for
Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR. Investigators showed that this
money was released for the PDP Presidential Primaries.
8. Lamido Sanusi, then CBN Governor was sacked for speaking up about the over $20billion missing from oil proceeds.
These cases of grand corruption and open looting of public resources
pauperized Nigeria and left us with little or no savings in the years
when oil was selling at 100 to 114 dollars a barrel and we were
producing 2.1 million barrels a day. When in 2015 oil prices went even
as low as between 28 and 35 dollars a barrel and oil production fell to
less than one million barrels a day we had no buffer, no savings, to
tide us through.
The amount released from CBN in cash on a single day, ie the US$289M (
N88.1Bn) is enough to fund 244,000 N-Power graduates for a year, or pay
for 1.2Billion school meals or complete half of Lagos -Ibadan or half
of Abuja -Kaduna -Kano roads.
The Vice President also made the point that in 2014 with oil prices
as high as 120 dollars per barrel, the total capital released for Power,
Works, Housing, Defence, Transport, Agriculture and Defence were just
N152Billion for the whole year.
By contrast, the Buhari administration committed N578Bn to the same
Ministries in 2016 with oil prices as low as US$28 per barrel as part of
the strategy to end the recession. The government was able to do more
with less by stopping grand corruption and impunity.
Recently, the Minister Coordinating the economy in that
administration has written a revealing book : Fighting Corruption is
Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines. Who knows, perhaps her
stories too are all lies!
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