Indications emerged last night that the Federal
Government would extend its dragnet towards apprehending and prosecuting
more individuals and groups which allegedly helped themselves with huge
funds meant for the acquisition of arms for the armed forces, leaving
the soldiers to fight with bare hands.
Meanwhile, the war of words between Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo
State and former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
continued, yesterday, as the governor alleged that the former minister
facilitated looting of funds by officials of the past admiistration.
Already, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
probing how funds meant for arms were diverted and stolen by top
politicians, have stumbled on fresh evidence that senior officials of
the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria were actively
involved in the transfer of funds to the suspects.
The operatives are upset that rather than help to protect the
fortunes of the country, the said officials aided and abetted
politicians to bolt away with the nation’s scarce resources.
The agency also discovered that most of the records which the Office
of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, used in collecting the huge sums
of public funds from the relevant government agencies and paying the
sludge funds to the politicians, were not kept in the office of the
embattled NSA.
It was learnt last night that EFCC operatives were set to summon the
former Minister of Finance & Coordinating Minister for the Economy,
Dr. Ngozi Okojo-Iweala and some top officials of the CBN to shed more
light on what they know about the arms budget said to have been diverted
by bigwigs of one of the political parties.
Also to be invited based on evidence of disbursement from the apex
bank, are some serving and retired top officials of the CBN who helped
in the disbursement of the arms cash to the beneficiaries.
Vanguard learnt that the decision to summon
the former minister and the apex bank officials followed the discovery
that the bank played an active part in wiring various sums of money to
persons and institutions at home and abroad without paying attention to
due process.
It was the gamut of transaction documents from the CBN that has
assisted them to trace and arrest the high profile politicians and their
cronies, who benefitted from the public funds meant for arms.
A
source said: “It is clear from our discovery that some money taken from
the Abacha loot was used to secure some arms and fight insurgency but
it is also clear that a larger part of the money was diverted and nobody
raised an eyebrow.
“We want these people to come and give us further clarifications on why they released the money and who got what and why.”
It was gathered that documents at the CBN have established that the
$15 million cash which the office of the NSA ferried for the purchase of
arms and was seized by the South African Government was part of the
Abacha loot. The country is yet to refund the cash to Nigeria.
It was also learnt that part of the Abacha loot was used to secure
the services of mercenaries and guerrillas from some countries to assist
in re-taking 22 Nigerian territories in the North-East from Boko Haram.
The government at the time had engaged some of the foreign fighters
to train troops in anti-terrorism warfare, intelligence gathering and
counter terrorism which enabled them recover the lost territories from
the insurgents. In spite of that, it never admitted using any of them
for any of its operations.
Already, eight of the suspects have been charged with stealing, money
laundering and breach of the Public Procurement Act, while none of them
is yet to be released even on bail.
Okonjo-Iweala helped Jonathan loot stolen funds, Oshiomhole insists
However, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State yesterday continued
his verbal assault on former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, as the governor alleged that the ex-minister only helped
the past administration to loot funds.
Oshiomhole who was the guest speaker at a dialogue session that was
co-organised by the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, and the
Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, in Abuja yesterday to commemorate the
International Human Rights Day, urged President Muhammadu Buhari not to
spare the former Minister who he branded “Ali Baba”.
The Edo State governor spoke on a topic entitled “Towards Advancing the Right to Social Security Protection in Nigeria”.
Speaking to journalists at the end of his presentation, Oshiomhole,
maintained that Okonjo-Iweala has serious questions to answer with
regards to what happened to looted funds that were recovered from former
military dictator, General Sani Abacha.
He said it was not enough for the former minister to “sit there in
Washington”, and say that she “transferred part of the money recovered
from Abacha to Dasuki for security purpose”.
“All I am just saying is that we are in a constitutional democracy.
We are not under an informal arrangement. When you listen to all the
narratives, all the disclosures and defence, you will realise that the
Federal Government needs to prosecute everybody, not to exempt anyone.
“For example I have read in the newspapers and online, the former
Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy saying
that she transferred part of the money recovered from Abacha to Dasuki
for security purposes.
“Now, the first question the media should ask is, even under
conditions of war, money must be appropriated. The National Assembly, I
recall very well, when Aminu Tambuwal was Speaker of the House of
Representatives, they reconvened on Sunday in order to attend to an
urgent matter submitted by the President. So, the Constitution is very
clear.
“Money was looted and foreign countries helped us recover that money
and a minister assisted in ensuring that that money is re-looted again.
And she is there in Washington and you are here languishing. I am saying
that she also must be brought to justice”, the Edo governor said.
Okonjo-Iweala should apologise to Nigerians—SERAP
Meanwhile, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP)
has asked former Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo Iweala to “apologise
to Nigerians for claiming recently that recovered Abacha loot was
transparently spent while she knew that $322m (about N63billion)
recovered Abacha funds were inappropriately released to finance the
fight against Boko Haram.”
SERAP’s statement yesterday followed Mrs Okonjo-Iweala’s statement
that she released about $322m to the former National Security Adviser
Sambo Dasuki for military operations.
In a statement by SERAP executive director Adetokunbo Mumuni the
organisation said: “The truth about the spending of Abacha loot is now
coming out, and it is clear that Mrs Okonjo-Iweala was wrong to accuse
SERAP of bias while she knew that we are simply seeking truth, justice
and accountability on the spending of recovered Abacha loot.”
“Mrs Okonjo-Iweala’s approach of ‘no answers, no apology’ on how
Abacha loot was spent is doing her reputation more harm than good. We
hope that she will take cue from the World Bank (her former employer)
when it defined ‘accountability and probity’ as knowing what task has
been set, accepting to do it, and going about it with a sense of
probity. Probity implying the willingness to self-disclose such
information to which a specific stakeholder group has a right as well as
tolerance of the scrutiny of such a stakeholder group on information to
which they have a right,” the organisation said.
It will be recalled that the former Minister of Finance, had on
Wednesday, disclosed that she transferred $322m (N64.148bn) from the
looted funds recovered from Abacha to the Office of the National
Security Adviser, NSA, to aid military operations in the North-East.
I secured ex-President’s approval — Okonjo-Iweala
In a statement by her Media Adviser, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, Dr.
Okonjo-Iweala, insisted that she secured the approval of ex-President
Jonathan before the fund was transferred. She stressed that the approval
followed the recommendation of a committee set-up by former President
Jonathan to advise the administration on the way forward.
The ex-Minister explained that based on recommendation of the
committee, she personally requested that part of the recovered funds be
used for security operations while the rest be channelled to
developmental purposes.
She said her decision to release the funds to the ONSA, was sequel to
accusations that she was starving the military of funds to prosecute
war on terrorism.
Okonjo-Iweala specifically accused Oshiomhole “and other powerful and
corrupt interests”, of sponsoring a campaign of falsehood against her.
“To achieve their evil propaganda objective of tarnishing her name,
these evil elements have distorted the contents of a memo, dated January
20, 2015, in which the former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, responded to a request by the former National Security
Adviser, Col. Ibrahim Dasuki (retired), for funds to prosecute the
terror war against Boko Haram.
“The central responsibility of the Minister of Finance is to find
sources of funding for the financing of approved national priorities
such as security, job creation and infrastructure.”
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