PTDF: The Drama, The Facts, The Fiction
FROM ALIFA DANIEL (ASST POLITICS EDITOR, ABUJA)
SENATOR Titus Olupitan is not given to oratory. So, when his "dissenting opinion" on the PTDF Report began circulating, many hailed the beauty of its prose. That was until the Atiku Campaign Organisation (ACO) issued its own questions on the Report. The coincidence in style and beauty of argument were too glaring.

And then, on the second day of discussion on the Report, Senator Eze Ajoku, a member of the Ad-Hoc Committee that investigated the PTDF, dropped a bombshell that sent everyone reeling with laughter and called to question Olupitan's altruistic postulations.

Ajoku's words: "Mr. (Senate) President, as a member of the Committee (that investigated the PTDF), I have restrained myself from making comments but to the extent that every senator stands on his own integrity. It is necessary for me to make just one or two comments.

"The Committee erred in one way, in the sense that during the Public Hearing, when a member was singled out as indirectly being part of the whole episode by a witness, the Committee should have asked that member to excuse himself and that is in the person of Senator Olupitan.

"This is because a witness clearly said: 'I see you being part of this thing.' Therefore, we should have asked him to excuse himself because at all times, he was very sensitive any time we mentioned Fasawe's name when we were writing the Report.

"He should have been excused because he was particularly sensitive to Fasawe and his account. He probably agreed with every other thing but on Fasawe. Therefore, the Committee, just as one person was excused when we started, he should have been excused from the work."

There was laughter and many on the floor shouted "no wonder," in apparent reference to his dissenting opinion. The comments of Ajoku sent others to be leafing through the Verbatim Report where the drama between Olupitan and Dumebi Kachikwu took place.

The Verbatim Report of that day made interesting reading, as it showed Olupitan desperately trying to discredit Kachikwu, and Kachikwu fighting back to maintain the credibility of his evidence.

Even when Olupitan did not want Kachikwu to speak further, he did and spilled the beans.

The Verbatim Report reads:

"Senator Olupitan: Mr. Kachikwu, you said that this company, NDTV, got money from PTDF, how did you come to know that because the PTDF made a deposit or a placement with TIB and the company got money from TIB? How come you linked money put by PTDF into TIB with the money made available to your company?

Mr. Kachikwu: It is because I was aware of several meetings that were going on where it was discussed. Nda came for several meetings and TIB was part of the several meetings where it was discussed, where they were following up on the money from PTDF. That is how come I know.

Olupitan: And the bank, TIB, confirmed to you that it was that money?

Kachikwu: They do not have to confirm to me. As I said, I was in several meetings.

Olupitan: Again, you mentioned that each time you needed money, you would not get it until money was released from PTDF. That as soon as money is released from PTDF, you got money but from the records only twice were deposits made from PTDF to TIB.

Kachikwu: And it was only those two times that NDTV made payments and I can break them down for you.

Olupitan: That is all right.

Kachikwu: No, let me break them down. Sir, I am even surprised because you know you were part of the family, you were always in Otunba Fasawe's place then. I believe you should know me very well. (Prolonged laughter and applause)

In the first tranche of payment that was made, we paid Intel-Sat. We made some more payments towards the house and started renovating it. The first payment towards NDTV then was 500,000 Euros. Then there was another tranche of 70 million or so that was paid again towards the house and there were some other minor payments. I cannot remember if that was when the $1.5 million was paid.

But after the second lodgment came, which I think was sometime in November or December because that was towards the end of the year; people were putting pressure that we should make this payment. But it was Mr. Egunjobi or TIB that had suggested then that we should wait till the end of the year and eventually payment was made in early January or thereabout.

Olupitan: Mr. Chairman, I want to make a statement. This gentleman has made a general statement that I am a member of the family; that he has seen me in Fasawe house several times (laughter). This is a lie. I have never seen this fellow before.

The Chairman (Ndoma-Egba): Distinguished Senator, please, I think it would be risky to join issues on a matter like this in public, "

Even though Ndoma-Egba saved Olupitan's face, he made an error of judgment, which turned out to be his undoing: he did not report the embarrassing situation to Senate President, Ken Nnamani.




Ndoma-Egba In Defence Of His Committee


WHEN he had the opportunity to defend himself and his Committee against the barrage of allegations and innuendoes thrown his way, Ndoma-Egba took on everyone that was even remotely criticised him and the Committee he headed. Particularly, he tried strenuously to impress it on his Colleague Senators that Vice President Abubakar was guilty, as the Report of the Ad-Hoc Committee had indicated.

Ndoma-Egba said: "I believe that we did our work according to our conscience and in truth and I believe that all of us, who served on that Committee since we finished our work, go to bed and slept very soundly. If we are given another opportunity and the same facts, we would come (out) with the same Report.

"I also want to thank you because that opportunity has given us the opportunity to see the interplay of propaganda, politics and facts. We concerned ourselves with the facts and not with propaganda or the politics of the situation. So, what we did was to address facts as were presented to us and we were deaf and dumb to propaganda and the politics of the times.

"I believe that since each speaker was given five minutes, I would be given five minutes to respond to each of the issues raised by each speaker. But I would try to be as brief as possible because I have summarised the issues.

"But before I go to the specifics, let me just address one or two issues particularly issues made by distinguished Senator Wabara whom I respect very much. He said the Report was coherent, consistent until the point when my name appeared on the EFCC list.

On his name on EFCC list

"Let me put it on record that my name never appeared on any EFCC list and I challenge my Colleagues to check with their political parties the list that was sent to their political parties by EFCC. My name was not on any list. What happened was that some mischievous people just went to the Internet and pasted a list that they claimed was the authentic EFCC list. The EFCC itself has come out to deny that list. It has issued a statement specifically saying that Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba was never on their list and I was never on their list.

"If my name appeared on the EFCC list, the names of all other 108 Senators would appear on that list because I have held no other position different from the other 108 Senators. The last public office I held before I came here was 21 years ago. So, my name was never on that list and I believe that this sufficiently addresses that. Let me add that it will never be.

On time-frame for the Committee

"With respect to the time we took to prepare this Report, indeed, we were given four weeks when we started; but after the four weeks elapsed, a number of things happened. Distinguished Senators will remember that I came back to ask for more time. A number of reasons were given including the ADC plane crash in which we lost two of our distinguished Colleagues. One of them, Senator Sule Yari Gandi, was a very close friend of mine. He served on my Committee on Media and Public Affairs. I do not know whether my Colleagues, who said we took too much time, are saying they had the right to mourn our Colleagues while members of my Committee did not have the same right.

"We gave a number of reasons. Senate went on Recess. Are we saying that because we are members of that Committee, we were not entitled to go to our Constituencies like every other Senators? Are they saying that because we were members of that Committee, we were not entitled to go for our Primaries like other Senators? Some were running as Governors and others for Senate. Were they saying that because we were members of the Ad-Hoc PTDF Committee, we should not have done what other Colleagues were doing? I think it is very unfair and cheap to say the least.

"Let me say that you can never fully investigate PTDF even in one full term. One, the sum of money we are talking about is huge, running into billions of dollars. If you need to investigate those Accounts, you need experts outside this Senate; and you need as much time as you can get. You will not need to put a time frame.

"Secondly, their (PTDF) core responsibility is training of students. For us to do a thorough job, we must go and investigate that, indeed, these students that they claimed they sponsored was true. We must check each institution that the PTDF claimed to have sponsored students. You cannot finish that assignment in one full term of this Senate.

"What we tried to do was that the issues that we could conclude, we concluded. The issues that we could not conclude, we referred to Senate for further investigations. We have done the bit that we were able to do, given our Terms of Reference, time limit given and funding that we received as well as our given abilities. We did that. What we were unable to do, we have been honest enough to clearly state in our Report that we were not able to do. Go ahead, set up another Panel to go and look into it. We were very clear and categorical; but the issues we were able to conclude we did not run away from.

"I do know that the outcome of this Report disappointed quite a number of people; it was not because what we stated is not true but because what we stated is inconsistent with their expectations. It is in that light that I understand Senator Farouk lost respect for me. I would like to say that it is mutual; it is just that mine came a little earlier than his (did). I have no apologies to those who were disappointed by the outcome of the Report. Indeed, I would have apologised if I saw the facts and closed my eyes to them."


'We did Not Reliance On The EFCC Report'

LET me go straight to some of the issues that were raised. The first is that we relied on the EFCC Report. I would give you a little background. This Senate agreed, following the advice of the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Legal Matters, that we should set aside the Report of the EFCC and conduct our own independent investigations.

"When you set up this Committee, the first thing we did was to agree on the scope of our assignment, our methodology and how we were going to approach the work. We identified a certain category that we categorised as mandatory witnesses, that is, those who were absolutely needed to help this assignment which included the Governor of Central Bank, Department of Petroleum Resources, Accountant-General of the Federation, Auditor-General of the Federation and the PTDF itself. Those were mandatory; we needed those people to do the work.

"So, we agreed that those ones must be invited. Any other person that was not mandatory was to be invited through a general invitation to the public at large. Anybody who had any interest in what we were doing or who had any memorandum and wanted to test it could come under that general invitation to the public at large.

On Atiku's appearance at the Committee

"At this point, let me say that my Committee did not invite the Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; we did not invite the President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. The Vice President, on his own, opted to come before us. Not only did he opt to come before us, he followed it up with letters thus: 'Please, I want to appear before you.' I told the Secretariat to write to him to say look:

"'We would be sitting from so and so date to so and so date. Indicate in advance given your office and your person, which day would suit you so that we make adequate arrangements for your visit.'

"We did not rely on the EFCC Report. EFCC appeared before us just like the Vice President did. They responded to the invitation to the public at large; and when they appeared, we could not close our ears to their testimonies. In proof of the fact that we did not rely on their report, we did not agree with EFCC on the issue of Globacom. It was not the only one we did not agree with; but that is just one example. EFCC indicted Mike Adenuga and Globacom. We did not. So, we did not use their report.

On PTDF monies being lost

"The second issue was if any money was lost? Yes, money was lost. If all those loans given to NDTV, Transvari Services Limited, Mofas Shipping Company Limited, were to be recovered today from Spring Bank, the bank will go under. The Managing Director of the bank said so. So, if we begin to just humour ourselves and play politics with that fact and try to recover that money today, there will be no Spring Bank because it would go down with the monies of so many innocent Nigerians. We stand by our Report that monies were lost.

"In any case, even when they were doing the restructuring, the first thing PTDF conceded was accumulated interests of $320,000. It was in our draft Report. However, I noticed that it was not in this (final) Report. The PTDF conceded $320,000 that was lost. So, monies were lost.

On difference between indictments of Atiku and Obasanjo

"Mr. (Senate) President, in the Vice President's case, we said he aided and abetted the conversion of public funds. Conversion of public funds, in simple language, is stealing; and it is criminal.

"In the President's case, he did not convert public funds. There was a law setting up PTDF, specifying objectives for which the fund could be used. They went outside that fund, outside the law and spent some monies. He tried to ratify it by going to the Federal Executive Council. Ordinarily, that ratification would have sufficed, but we looked at the objectives and said, look, even with this ratification, these projects are still outside the contemplation of the PTDF. But he did not benefit from those funds. He spent the funds for public purposes whereas in the Vice President's case, everything was arranged and constructed for his personal benefit. So, it is like comparing an orange with pineapple.

"They are two different situations and they cannot attract the same punishment no matter how we look at it; and no matter the politics we try to play with it. They are two different situations. Wrong parking is an offence and murder is equally an offence but you cannot say that because somebody did wrong parking and committed an offence you should punish him the same way as somebody who committed murder. That is what my Colleagues, who are arguing, are saying that the punishment should be the same. They should understand that the two situations are different.

On status of money put in bank

"On the issue of money in the bank, I have heard the argument here that when you put money in the bank it becomes bank's money. In fact, that is the foundation of distinguished Senator Olupitan's disagreement with us. That is a classical legal position. However, let me say that those who postulated that legal position never contemplated PTDF and the Vice President. They never contemplated that what had happened with public funds, in this case, was possible. If they had contemplated that, that legal position would have been different.

"What we are saying by this argument is that when money enters a bank, it becomes bank's money and that is an excuse for looting public funds. If by tomorrow they appoint me the Minister of Finance and the Senate has taken that kind of decision, all I need to do is to approve a banking licence for myself then I will loot Nigeria's money and put it in the bank. When I am arrested, I will simply argue that it is the bank's money. We are providing an excuse.

On non-invitation of President

"On the issue of non-invitation of Mr. President, I have already addressed that. Yes, we did not invite Mr. President. Again, let me use this opportunity to address the issue of my visit to the Villa. A lot has been said about my visit to the Villa. The Senate Leader has explained that visit. We went with Senator Abba Aji.

"If Senator Sani Sami had not died and if I had not gone to the Senate Leader's House on that day, I would never have gone to the Villa. But like the Senate Leader has explained on this Floor, Senator Abba Aji and I could not even go in. I am a politician; I am a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and I am not a Judge of any Court. If I cannot go to the Villa where else can I go to as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria?

On OBJ 006

"On the allegations made by the Vice President, let me say that all the allegations made by the Vice President have been addressed in our Report. For example, he talked about the OBJ 006; we addressed it in the Report. Maybe, we did not mention OBJ 006 but if you look at page 48, you will see Defence Industries Corporation Rehabilitation Account.

"That is the money. Even the Minister for Petroleum, the then Minister of State, who is now the Minister of Energy came and testified before us that one of their major concerns has been the issue of capacity for the oil industry and that they needed to create capacity. I think it was a Ministerial Committee that went round to identify existing facilities for them to collaborate with, to train welders for the oil industry. They found DICON and they put N1 billion there because DICON has existing facilities to enable them train welders. That is the money they are referring to as OBJ 006.

On further investigation

"Now, let me say that though it was pointed out that we ought to have investigated further but the Vice President, who made the allegation, gave us no leads. For him to make the allegation it means he has more information than we do have. So, he ought to have given us the lead - that if you go to so and so places, you will find this or that. He just made the allegation and left it hanging and you expect us to go on a wild goose chase? That allegation and all other allegations by the Vice President were addressed.

On Marine Float Account

"Speaking on the Marine Float Account, may I say that our term of reference was specific - PTDF and other related organisations. Our terms of reference did not say PTDF and other related accounts. It says organisations. So, what we did was to start from PTDF and followed the trail. If we find PTDF going into a place, we followed the trail to where it ends.

"Marine Float, as we stated in our Report, addressed a second line beneficiary. There was not a kobo of PTDF from the evidence before us that went into Marine Float Account. The only reason why we recommended to this Senate that the Account should be further investigated is because of the public interest that Account has generated.

"But I repeat there was not a single kobo of PTDF fund that we found going into that account. So, if we had gone in to investigate that account, it would have been outside our terms of reference and we were limiting ourselves to our terms of reference.

On Congressman Williams Jefferson, NDTV

"Senator Kuta and another distinguished Colleague talked about Williams Jefferson that has been discredited in the United States and all of that and we took his letter. Sir, when the Chairman of EFCC testified before the Committee, he tendered a number of documents. The Exhibits and the Memoranda we received came in five Ghana-must-go bags. The letter from the Congressman, Williams Jefferson, was one of them and that was the first letter that alerted Nigerians of all these. He said that he introduced Otunba Fasawe to a business deal and the information reaching him was that that deal was to be funded by PTDF. That was the first alert.

"Then Dumebi Kachikwu, who had met distinguished Senator Olupitan several times in Fasawe's place, said that he founded NDTV and explained how Otunba Fasawe and the Vice President came to NDTV. This was the discussion that they held. I have the Verbatim Report here and I have underlined the relevant pages.

"He said clearly that in the course of their discussions, it was agreed that this transaction was to be funded from PTDF through Trans International Bank. He stated that there was one Nda Yakubu, who was a director in the Accountant-General's Office, who was to nose around to find out which funds were there and he was the one who told them that the PTDF money would soon come and to be taken to Trans International Bank. He said so. I was told that he came from detention. I do not know of any law that says if you are in detention, your evidence cannot be credible.

"In any case, distinguished Senator Olupitan put it to him directly: that you are coming from detention and the gentleman said, no, I am a free man. They are all here in the Report. Senator Olupitan even asked him why he came, if he was the only one that had given testimony to EFCC and he said, no, he was here because of NDTV. That he was the only one involved with NDTV. That he founded NDTV and I am now being told that that is the evidence of somebody in detention.

On Senator Olupitan's allegation

"Let me say a few words on the dissenting opinion. Where I come from, we are taught to respect elders if you want to live long. For that reason I respect distinguished Senator Olupitan so that I can live up to his age. He said we were compromised. I will request this Senate to investigate that allegation.

"My Committee insists that that allegation be investigated. There are two things that the Committee would want to comment on; the first is that witness said that the distinguished Colleague, who submitted the dissenting opinion, Senator Olupitan, was seen with Mr. Kachikwu, I do not know any of the characters in this Report but I do know that distinguished Senator Olupitan is from Owo in Ondo State like Chief Fasawe. Let us leave that issue there.

"Distinguished Senator Olupitan said that after we sent away Chief Otunba Fasawe's lawyer, we did not invite Chief Otunba Fasawe. When his lawyer appeared, he came with Court Orders and said that the High Court in Lagos had restrained EFCC from doing certain things and I said to him:

"'No, we are not EFCC, we are not covered by that Court Order, and we are not even contemplated by the Court Order but we had noted your position. When we start this assignment, if we find any monies coming to your Client, we would invite your Client.'

"On the 8 of December, the Secretary of my Committee wrote to Otunba Fasawe's lawyer - Prince Olu Mafo of Flat 4A, Games Village, Lagos, inviting him. This was because the lawyer said we should invite his Client, Chief Fasawe through him. We invited Otunba Fasawe to our Public Hearing.

"Basically, what my distinguished Colleague (Olupitan) did was that he wrote his Report before we started taking evidence and he has raised a number of issues in his dissenting opinion. All of those issues are captured in the main Report. He kept saying we did not ask this or that question. I have the Verbatim Report here. I would like to know when he, Senator Olupitan, asked those questions. He did not.

"So, I think that we should separate facts from politics and propaganda. What my Committee did was to limit itself to the facts. We left the propaganda and politics to another forum."


Nnamani's comment

OBVIOUSLY angry that he was never told that Olupitan might have compromised himself, Nnamani said: "One is the comment made by Senator Eze Ajoku that the Committee made a mistake, that they should have asked Senator Olupitan to step aside.

"Well, the Ad-Hoc Committee did not set up itself; it was done by the Leadership and was approved by the whole Senate. What I thought was that the Committee would have done us a great favour by telling us that there was a member of the Committee that has vested or pecuniary interest or whatever interest in the matter. We would not have hesitated in changing him. This is because when we realised that one of us here had something to do with the PTDF, we withdrew his name and substituted him with another competent Senator, too.

"So, I do not think it was too much of an error on the part of the Committee. But the error there, if any, was that you should have told us that distinguished Senator Olupitan has a personal interest in Chief Fasawe. This is because they are all from Owo and therefore, he must try to protect his countryman or so. If you had told us this, we would have withdrawn Senator Olupitan without wasting time."

pdp @ work.

Welcome to the Petroleum Development Trust (and Alhaji) Fund

More skeletons falling out of the cracked cupboard. Good development. For sure in the nearest future, it will be much more difficult for politicians to loot our treasury with reckless abandonment.

are giving us adhoc senate report or are telling us how atiku stole money?

are giving us adhoc senate committee report or are telling us how atiku stole money?