*Different faces of anti-corruption war attackers
*Published details of looters under PDP a tip of the iceberg – Osinbajo
The Office of the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has revealed details of mind-boggling corruption during the Jonathan era and even called them a tip of the iceberg.
This revelation was as investigations by The DEFENDER pointed at unguarded attitude of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) – as a party and members – towards their ugly past as responsible for the eventual resort leading to the stage-by-stage releases of the lists of looters in recent times.
Jide Omokore, one of the three.
It would be recalled that despite winning court case against the Federal Government by SERAP to get the it publish the names of those who looted the treasury dry under the past PDP-led government of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, President Muhammadu Buhari was indisposed to publish the names and he gave cogent reasons.
Perhaps thinking that the President would be left alone by men around him to that decision, the PDP leaders led by the party’s National Chairman, Mr. Uche Secondus, in their bid to proof to Nigerians why they should be reconsidered to return to power in 2019, began to mount pressure on the APC-led Buhari Administration to release the list of those who looted under the umbrella if they were sure of their allegations or that they kept quiet.
Standing up to the challenge by the PDP’s leadership, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on whose shoulders rested the need to respond to challengers, made the first list of six looters and incidentally the name of the main challenger, Secondus, topped the list.
Expectedly, no PDP person would be thought to have issue with the response they got. But, the same Secondus, a lawyer, spat into the air and caught it back with his own eyes saying over his dead body and he threatened the person of Alhaji Lai Mohammed instead of directing his salvos to the Federal Government, demanding that his name be stamped out of the list while paid advertorials be placed in all the media outfits that reported the list.
Seeing what Secondus did, other affected PDP members some of whom are already undergoing corruption trials in courts but, due to court delays, have had their cases dragged for long, also went to the press launching their threats. It was so much that even Mr. Olisa Metuh, who had confessed voluntarily to have actually taken N400 million from arms money meant to fight against insurgencies but that he took it on Jonathan’s instruction without showing what he spent the money for, joined the race for attacks on Lai Mohammed saying his name be removed from the list of looters.
Secondus (right): Caused the release of looters’ lists. Lai Mohammed: Rose to the challenge and exposed the looters.
Due to the PDP’s denials and launched attacks at the person of the minister saying he could not substantiate their inclusion in the list, members of the legal and journalism professions started analyzing the list to say APC government goofed to have released a list of looters that was one-sided.
Asked how was the list one-sided, Editor of The NEWS Magazine, Mr. Jide Kolade-Otitoju, said the those Nigerians who are talking against it said no name of any APC member was included. It was however resolved that it was not possible for APC members who were not part of the looting spray to have their names included.
While the rouse was on, instead for Lai Mohammed to fall for the threats of the PDP leaders asking for their names to be trashed out of the looters list, the Minister proved to them and other Nigerians asking questions that the first list he released was based on verifiable facts. He then handed out a fresh list, this time, of more than six looters.
Then Secondus became the first to go to court where he slammed Lai Mohammed with outrageous amount for libel. He was followed by Chairman of Daar Communications PLC, owners of AIT/RayPower/Faaji FM 106.5, Chief Raymond Dokpesi who also slammed the Minister with another libel suit.
Undaunted Lai Mohammed became resolute more than before and vehemently promised that release of a third list of looters who looted under the watch of PDP-led Federal Government was in the offing but that, the third list would be holistic and more comprehensive, leading to silence like that of graveyard in the camp of agitating PDP leaders since then.
Different faces of anti-corruption war attackers
PDP then started strategizing and killings were become more outrageous and misrepresentations over the killings were getting large, so much that even Kogi State where no one had ever heard of “herdsmen” killing under 24 hours became a victim as scores were killed. When arrested, some of the criminals who have been perpetrating armed robbery, kidnapping and other crimes in the state confessed to the Nigeria Police that Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Mr. Dino Melaye, was their weapons and funds supplier.
Asked by the police to come and state his own side of the allegation, Melaye resorted to using the influence of the Senate where he had been so vocal to dodge honouring the invitation by the police. The Police then threatened to declare him wanted if he failed to show up within a specified period but instead, Dino Melaye screamed to the United Nations, United States of America, Britain and other world bodies inciting the international community against the government of Nigeria and the Nigerian Police saying they were persecuting him.
The fight against looters’ list by the PDP then shifted to strongly supporting Melaye to the extent that even some lawyers, who failed to rise against the Senate of which member is Melaye when Senator Shehu Sani revealed breach of the Constitution over monthly pay of N13.5 million, started taking side with the embattled Senator and, lately, seeing where the pendulum would fall, quickly rushed to court to say they were dragging National Assembly and Federal Government to court over outrageous pay of lawmakers. That was the situation and attitude of supposedly respectable Nigerians towards the anti-corruption war of the Muhammadu Buhari Administration.
It was so terrible that even the PDP national chairman, Uche Secondus, had to write a letter to the United Nations misrepresenting the anti-corruption of the Buhari government to the UN as fight against human rights in Nigeria. Although the letter has failed to fly talkless that it would bite as the Presidency dismissed it some 30 hours ago as a letter “beyond comprehension” and then promised all the politicians who had looted Nigerian treasury to expect more arrest and even worse deal this year.
The business of revelation of looters has now shifted to the Office of the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who is the coordinator of the economy of the Republic. Osinbajo has refused to give a dam speaking aloud that “We will not be tired talking about the loots by PDP government” adding that doing so had become necessary because the same elements, ousted for their wicked looting of the nation’s treasury and plunging the country into its current situation of suffering, are now desperately misrepresenting the facts about the ugly past to return to power and restore their corruption.
The vice president said at a function in Akure, Ondo State capital, recently, that God would never make it possible for the looters to return to power.
Grand corruption in Jonathan era: Osinbajo releases details
In revealing the extent of the mind-boggling corruption during the PDP-led Jonathan era, the Office of the Vice President published the details and even called them a tip of the iceberg.
The details were published in a reaction to the accusations by spin doctors of former President Goodluck Jonathan, who claimed Osinbajo made unsubstantiated allegations about grand corruption during the Jonathan era.
The statement by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice President, Mr. Laolu Akande, said the Vice President did not at anytime accuse Jonathan in person, but only said the blatant corruption cases were committed during his presidency.
The full statement as follows:
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! ….”
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.
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.
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.
N70 billion was released in parts from the national treasury between January 8 and February 25, 2015.
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.
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.
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.
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!
