₦airaland Forum

trueteller:
You are even sounding very elementary. Tufiakwa. I will be the last person to celebrate individuals like Thiefnu.bu. If there is any Nigerians who is rotten from the head to the toes is Thiefnu.bu. As at today, Thiefnu.bu is one of the, I mean, is the tomost corrupt Nigerian. He is the of the most re-knowned and dirtiest in terms of corruption. So, if that dullest and dumbest dunce call Buhari does not probe Thiefnu.bu, then, he does not, indeed, know his left from his right. When this Fulani man call Buhari with incomplete brain cells, who is also like cooked vegetable and appears like an half inch rod fails to do that, then he is a daft. Tufiakwa.

trueteller:
Your mouth dey smell. Are you related to Thiefnu.bu?

chukwudi44:
Ask the party leaders to quit the propaganda on the pages of newspapers and move into action

chukwudi44:
Lol do you really believe he has evidence against them and yet he haven't acted?
Oshiomhole has been searching for a pin in a hay sack just to indict NOI all to no avail

A 19-year-old scrap metal scavenger,
Mohammed Bello, is in custody of the
Department of Criminal Investigation, Yaba,
Lagos for allegedly stabbing a generator
repairer, Taiwo Falola, to death during an
argument over the sale of rabbits in Abbatoir
area of Agege, Lagos.
The police said Falola, who reared the rabbits,
got into an argument with Bello when he
refused to sell his baby rabbits.
Bello allegedly inflicted a three-inch injury on
Falola’s neck, causing the deceased to bleed and
die before he could even get to the hospital
where he was rushed to.
The deceased’s uncle, Mutiu Adebayo, told our
correspondent that one of Falola’s friends
rushed to their house that Saturday, on July 4,
2015, and told him Falola had got into an
argument and had been stabbed.
“We went to the police division at Abattoir and
we were told he had been taken to hospital. By
the time we got there, he was already dead. He
had even been taken to the mortuary,”
Adebayo said.
Twenty-five-year-old Falola was said to have
been rearing rabbits for some years and when
one of his rabbits had new babies, he offered
them for sale.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the culprit saw the
rabbits in the cage and asked if he wanted to
sell them, but Falola said he did not want to
sell to him. An argument ensued and Bello
allegedly stabbed Falola to death.
Falola has been breeding rabbits for some
years, and one of them just had babies, which
he put in a cage to sell outside his house.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that Falola had initially
had an altercation with another resident of the
area over the baby rabbits and he became
suspicious of Bello when he asked about his
baby rabbits.
Residents claimed Bello was a violent young
man who attacked residents at little
provocation in the area.
The police said after the suspect stabbed Falola
in the neck, he ran away from the scene but
eyewitnesses gave him a chase and caught him.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that Bello was
restrained with a rope after he had stabbed
one of the men who caught him.
Bello, who said he was from Sokoto, however
denied the crime blatantly.
He said, “My brother, Sanusi, is the one who
stabbed him and told the people I did it. It was
my brother that stabbed him. But they said I
was the one who did it. I know nobody in Lagos
that is why they implicated me. I did not do it.
The knife belongs to Sanusi.
“I gather scrap metals for sale but I don’t have
much money. Sanusi is richer than me and has
decided to use that to deal with me.”

The crisis rocking the opposition party Peoples
Democratic Party took a new turn on Friday as
its workers further accused the members of
the party’s National Working Committee of
being “too corrupt.”
The angry workers also accused the NWC
members of demanding N1bn bribe from the
Governor of Kogi State, Idris Wada, before
giving him the party’s governorship ticket.
Governorship election will hold in Kogi State in
the last quarter of the year.
The workers also alleged further that the NWC
members demanded and received N750m
bribe from Mr. Ndudi Elumelu with a promise
to give him the PDP governorship ticket in
Delta State early in the year.
Our correspondent learnt that the money was
returned to Elumelu after ex-President
Goodluck Jonathan got wind of the incident.
These and other allegations were made at a
press briefing organised by the workers at
Wadata Plaza headquarters of the PDP in Abuja.
The PUNCH had, in two exclusive stories,
revealed the plan by the NWC to sack 50 per
cent of its workers and also cut the salaries of
those to be retained by the same percentage.
In response, the workers accused members of
the NWC of squandering N12bn in nine months.
The money was said to have been realised
from the sales of nomination forms during the
contest for elective offices in the party in 2014.
The workers said this in their response to the
letter sent to them by the party’s National
Secretary, Prof. Wake Oladipo, on Wednesday.
Oladipo had, in the letter, informed the
workers about the decision of the NWC to cut
cost and that even those to be retained must
also bring a letter of certification from their
state chapters of the party before they could
be absorbed.
Asking how a buoyant party with more than
N12bn could become beggary in just nine
months, the workers said all the members of
the NWC, led by its Acting National Chairman,
Mr. Uche Secondus, must either resign or be
sacked.
They said the political fortunes of the party
under the current leadership of the NWC had
dwindled and that in order to save the party,
Secondus and other NWC members must
resign. The workers, who were led by their
leaders, Ngozi Ezeh (chairman), and Dan Ochu-
Baiye (secretary), said at the press conference
that the members of the NWC were in a
mission to kill the once buoyant and popular
party.
Ochu-Baiye said, “It is no longer news that the
political fortunes of the PDP have continued to
dwindle since the coming on board of the
present NWC in March 2012.
“The party under the current leadership of
Secondus as Acting National Chairman and Prof.
Wale Oladipo as National Secretary has been
systematically and deliberately dismembered
and it is being led to the morgue in preparation
for its final burial.
“Never in the glorious history of our great
party has its fortunes been so hopelessly
mismanaged by an inept and dishonest group
whose sworn mission is to permanently destroy
and liquidate the lofty organisation that
facilitate the current democratic dispensation.
“The current NWC members are only hanging
on because of the obscene and bizarre bazaar
which they have subjected the purse of the
party to.”
The workers alleged that the many atrocities
committed by the NWC members were
responsible for the abysmal performance of
the party during the last general elections.
They said, “We make bold to say that
responsibility for the abysmal outing of the
party should be located directly at the doorstep
of the NWC members due to the following
reasons: Criminal imposition of unpopular
candidates and mind boggling extortion of
aspirants.
“An example here is the yet to be resolved
allegation by Ndudi Godwin Elumelu, who paid
whopping N750m to the NWC to obtain the
governorship ticket of the party in Delta State.
There are many other victims.
“The same scenario is being played out in Kogi
State while Bayelsa State is in the wings. In
Kogi, it is widely alleged that the incumbent
governor was requested to cough out the sum
of N1bn to the same NWC to retain his ticket.”
The workers also accused the NWC of non-
release of campaign funds to state chapters and
embezzlement of proceeds of sales of
nomination forms. They said there was no way
any political party could undergo a high level of
tortuous mismanagement and would still win
elections.
The workers said the NWC members must tell
members of the party why they compelled
delegates to pay the sum of N10, 000 each into
a private account of a company called Morufi
Nigeria Limited.
“We are aware that over N1bn was realised
from this fraudulent exercise,” they added,
calling on the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission to arrest and investigate the NWC
members for the alleged fraud.
They asked if it was the same PDP that was
once led by Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Chief Solomon
Lar, Chief Barnabas Gemade, Chief Audu Ogbeh
and Dr. Amadu Ali.
“Is the party still as formidable as when it was
led by Prince Vincent Eze Ogbulafor and the
erudite Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo? Is it the same
Party that was victoriously managed by Dr.
Haliru Mohammed?” the workers asked.
They also accused the PDP National Publicity
Secretary, Mr. Olisa Metuh, of engaging in anti-
party activities.
They alleged that when Metuh lost in his ward
and polling booth in the November 16, 2013
governorship election in Anambra State, he
openly campaigned for and supported the
candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance
against the PDP.
“He again lost his ward and polling booth in the
state Assembly elections of April 11, 2015,” the
workers said.
But Metuh dismissed workers’ allegations and
described them as baseless.
He said the PDP workers were being sponsored
by the All Progressives Progress.
Metuh said, “Their (the workers) call is baseless,
falsehood and contrived. They are only playing
out the script they were handed by the
opposition, the APC.
“Our party is aware of plots by the APC to
infiltrate our members and create confusion
within the party and that is what these
aggrieved staffers are doing.
“How come it is now that the PDP has become a
thorn in the flesh of the ruling APC and its
government at the centre that these kind of
internal protest are sprouting.
“The real issue is for the Director General of
the Department of State Services, Lawal Daura,
to resign and also for the acting Chairman of
the Independent National Electoral
Commission, Amina Zakari, to quit.”
The Kogi State Governor, Capt Idris Wada, told
one of our correspondents that it was untrue
that members of the NWC of the PDP
demanded a bribe of N1bn from him so that
they would facilitate or give him ticket as the
party’s candidate for the forthcoming election
in the state.
In a response by his spokesperson, Mr. Eddy
Jacob, the governor advised those making such
allegations to find a way to address their
problem and stop dragging his name in their
internal problem.
Jacob said, “The allegation is false. If the
workers of PDP have issues, they should find a
way of addressing them and should not drag
the person of Capt Idris Wada into what is an
internal crisis in the party.
“It is unconceivable that they will make such
allegation against Wada. Wada is prepared to
face the election and would not accept victory
other than through voting process. So I do not
know where they are coming from. I advise
them not to drag Wada’s name into what I think
is an internal party issue”
Elumelu, when contacted over the telephone,
declined to comment on the issue, saying he
would only entertain questions in a face-to-face
discussion.
He said, “I usually don’t talk to the press on
phone; I prefer face-to-face communication. I
picked the call because I always give people
respect by picking their calls.”

oderemo:
This is really crazy talk believe me, even the eyo tradition that is preserved earns Lagos state how much? Argungun festival nko? OK shogbo festival dey there and many more.
Tell me one country that survives on preserving culture/tradition? Even isreal can't survive on culture/tradition, Egypt nko?

•Says he alienated Nigeria’s neighbours

From Ikenna Emewu, Abuja

The official visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to Cameroun to discuss joint efforts to curb Boko Haram in the region has thrown up an indictment of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

A very credible Presidency source told Daily Sun that in the anti-terror war, Jonathan did not do much in forming a synergy with leaders of Nigeria’s neighbouring countries.

The source said during Buhari’s interaction with his Camerounian counterpart, Paul Biya, he disclosed that Jonathan isolated himself from the leaders of Cameroun, Chad and Niger. “The major complaint, according to Biya, is that Jonathan never or seldom, at best, picked his calls. He said most times he called, Jonathan neither picked nor returned his calls. And as a result, the integration of efforts that should have stopped Boko Haram’s foray and unchallenged run was lacking.”

Biya, according to our source, said he was sure that leaders of other neighbouring countries had the same experience, and therefore, questioned how Nigeria alone would have contained Boko Haram, knowing it is an international terror group with roots and connections in some other countries from where they get into Nigeria and carry out attacks.

“This solo handling of the problem did not enable the neighbours put in much to solve the problem until it got this bad,” he said.

The source also indicated that the Jonathan administration was lax and reluctant to bring under control people very close to that government who are flagrantly involved in crude oil theft and diversion.

According to the source, while Jonathan was in power, he was aware that certain persons close to him and coming under the guise of the protection of his government were involved in high scale oil theft.

Another source from the security outfit currently interrogating some key personalities of the past administration disclosed that one of them that was detained and later released told security agencies the Jonathan administration was quite privy to crude oil theft using some government agencies and individuals as fronts.

Daily Sun was told that the administration acted in compromise while the theft lasted and never did much in checking the agencies, individuals and security fronts used in the theft.

“There is no individual that would have access to the crude oil loading terminals, bring in a vessel and load the product and set sail to the high seas without being caught. We have several agencies of government from the petroleum corporation to the conventional security bodies like the Navy and other government bodies that patrol the territorial waters, even private security outfits.

“So it is practically impossible that someone would beat all these hurdles unaided and sail out with loads of crude oil. The government was aware of the people involved and when or where the crude oil was taken. The neighbouring countries we share common sea boundaries with also knew that the Nigerian government under Jonathan merely compromised in the theft,” our source said.

…Ex-CDS blames fifth columnists for slow progress

By Philip Nwosu



Former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh yesterday lamented the presence of some unpatriotic elements in the Armed Forces, explaining that their activities are impeding the anti-terror war.

Speaking at a pull-out parade organized to mark his disengagement from the military in Abuja, the former CDS said the Fifth Columnists in the military and other security agencies leaked operational plans and other sensitive information to the insurgents, thereby hampering the operations of the Armed Forces in the North-East.

He said: “The activities of Fifth Columnists in the military and other security agencies who leaked operational plans and other sensitive military information to terrorists, combined to make the fight against the insurgents particularly difficult.

“The activities of these unpatriotic members of the military not only blunted the effectiveness of the fight, but also led to the needless deaths of numerous officers and men who unwittingly fell into ambushes prepared by terrorists who had advance warnings of the approach of such troops,” he noted.

He said the decision by certain countries to deny Nigeria weapons to prosecute the war against insurgents also added to the challenges the military faced in anti-terror war. According to him, “the task of co-ordinating the military and other security agencies is perhaps the most complex and challenging assignment I have had in my over 38 years in service.

“For the first time, I was head of a military that lacked the relevant equipment and motivation to fight an enemy that was invisible and embedded with the local populace. Added to this, was the exploitation of a serious national security issue by a section of the press and the political class to gain political mileage.”

The former CDS said upon assumption of office, he envisioned a Defence Headquarters that would ensure effective co-ordination of the Armed Forces to meet the security aspirations of a united democratic Nigeria.

adding that “this became necessary in view of my desire to galvanise the entire Armed Forces in support of Operation Zaman Lafiya, which was, and still is mainly an Army operation.”

Marshal Badeh explained said the Defence Headquarters set out to combat insurgency with the excellent co-operation from the service chiefs and Heads of other security and Para-military organisations pointing out that these cooperation paid off as “we were able to record some notable successes.”

While listing his achievements as Chief of the Air Staff, Marshal Badeh lamented the dearth of pilots, adding that, “a major challenge we inherited in the area of human resource development, was the huge pilot generational gap that existed as a result of the lack of pilots among the members of five Nigerian Defence Academy courses some of whom were already Squadran Leaders and Wing Commanders.

“ Faced with this challenge, I projected into the future and found out to our dismay that the NAF was going to be faced with problems of deploying these categories of officers to key leadership positions which have been designated for pilots by establishment. In other to solve this problem, I approved the training of some of the officers who had been carefully screened and selected. As it is with such decisions, I faced lots of oppositions. However I remained undaunted and today, most of these officers have completed pilot training and are deployed to some of our flying units. “That singular determination to aggressively pursue the training of pilots has solved the problem of generational gap for pilots in the Nigerian Air Force,” he said.

Angry workers of the Peoples Democratic Party
have accused the members of the National
Working Committee of the party of
squandering N12bn in nine months.
Out of the total sum, the workers said N11bn
was realised from the sale of nomination forms
while N1bn was got from the sale of delegates
forms.
They alleged that the money was squandered
shortly after the sale of the forms commenced
on October 27, 2014 till date.
The workers said this in their response to the
letter sent to them by the party’s National
Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo, on Wednesday.
Oladipo, in the letter, had informed the
workers about the decision of the NWC to
reduce the party’s workforce by 50 per cent
and to also cut the salaries of those to be
retained by the same percentage.
The national secretary of the party said the
decision, among others, would take effect from
August.
He said, “Establishment staff who would remain
are required to obtain individual letters of
revalidation from their state chapters within
one month of this circular to their suitability
for service at the national secretariat.”
But the workers, after a meeting in Abuja on
Thursday, sent a reply to Oladipo.
Their reply, which was directed to Oladipo, was
dated July 30, 2015 and titled, “Re:
Organisation and Restructuring of staff at the
national secretariat of the Peoples Democratic
Party.”
They sent copies of the letter, which was
exclusively obtained by our corespondent, to
former President Goodluck Jonathan and the
acting Chairman, Board of Trustees of the
party, Alhaji Haliru Bello.
Also, copies were sent to the Deputy Senate
President, Ike Ekweremadu, PDP caucuses in
both the Senate and the House of
Representatives, Chairman, PDP Governors’
Forum, Dr. Segun Mimiko and all the PDP
governors.
Besides querying how the N11bn was spent,
the workers also said they were aware that the
party realised another N1bn in sales of
delegates forms recently.
With this, the angry workers wondered how the
party that was in power could be in a financial
mess.
Their letter to Oladipo read in part, “While we
appreciate the fact that the party is no longer
in power, we are equally aware that the party
realised over eleven billion naira
(N11,000,000,000) in income from the sale of
nomination and expression of interest forms in
the last quarter of 2014.
“We are equally aware that the NWC collected
over a billion naira from the sale of delegate
forms via a company account called Morufi Nig.
Ltd, Zenith Bank Account N0:1014041654.
“With this healthy bank balance, we find it
strange that after just two months of handing
over power, the NWC is proposing a 50%
reduction in staff emoluments.”
They said that they were aware that the NWC
members were in the habit of paying
themselves huge sums of money after the
party lost power during the 2015 general
elections.
The letter read further, “We have also
observed from publications in the media that
the NWC shared outrageous largesse among
themselves immediately after the party’s loss
in the last general elections.
“We are appalled by the whimsical and derisory
nature of the circular which unfortunately
negates all known administrative procedures.
We wish to recall that the national secretary,
who is statutorily in charge of the
administration of the secretariat, has never
called for a staff meeting or held any
interactive session with the staff since his
privileged appointment.
“We wish to draw the national secretary’s
attention to the fact that there are
administrative procedures for the
disengagement of staff whose appointments
have been duly confirmed.”
The workers said they welcomed the decision
of the NWC members to reduce their personal
staff and also reduce their emoluments.
But they said they rejected “the directives for
staff members to get revalidation letters from
the state chapters as this act will amount to
accepting our unlawful disengagement from
service.
“We reject in totality the proposal to reduce
staff emolument by 50%. This is because unlike
the members of the NWC, the staff are solely
dependent on their salaries and allowances.”
They said they still have unwavering belief in
the possibility of the party bouncing back, and,
therefore, urged the NWC to have the same
faith.
The workers reminded the NWC members that
the establishment staff of the PDP national
secretariat were engaged on the basis of a well-
articulated establishment manual that
expressly stated the conditions of service
therein.
However, the National Publicity Secretary of
the party, Mr. Olisa Metuh, told our
correspondent that the party took the decisions
because it realised that majority of the workers
had lost touch with their state chapters of the
party.

FEDERAL Government’s anti-corruption operatives have been sent after ‘super rich’ public officers who have multiple properties and other assets suspected to have been the rewards of graft.

For now, The PUNCH learnt, the searchlight of the anti-corruption agents was on civil servants that possess many properties in the Federal Capital Territory.

Our correspondents learnt in Abuja on Wednesday that operatives in the Assets Tracing, Recovery and Management Unit of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission had been asked to haul in suspects for interrogation and recovery of ill-gotten assets in their possession.

It was gathered that the ICPC had strengthened the ATRMU by posting more personnel to the unit to ensure the success of its campaign.

An operative at the ICPC, who confided in one of our correspondents, said the ICPC was using the anti-corruption transparency unit of the commission in ministries, departments and agencies to coordinate the ongoing investigation of the “super rich” civil servants in the country.

It was learnt that the ICPC was relying on petitions from civil servants and the ACTU operatives to carry out its investigations into the activities of the affected civil servants.

It was gathered that the ICPC operatives’ focus had been on civil servants who have more than three properties and a fleet of cars beyond their income.

Although the source did not mention the number of civil servants that had been quizzed in relation to the new move to check fraud in the civil service, it was learnt that several personnel of the civil service had been placed under watch by the ICPC.

The source, who spoke to The PUNCH, said any civil servant found to have compromised his office to acquire wealth would be charged to court after the proceeds of the corrupt acts would have been confiscated by the Federal Government.

The source said, “The ICPC is intensifying efforts to retrieve some of these stolen assets from those involved.

“You know that the commission has a unit called the Assets Tracing, Recovery and Management Unit. This is the unit that is involved in probing those who have such assets with stolen funds.

“In fact the operatives are working very discreetly on the issue but the focus of the ICPC’s probe is the civil service.

“Those civil servants living a life beyond their means, their lifestyles are under watch. People are monitoring them, whistle-blowers are writing petitions and the Assets Recovery Unit is following up on them.

“Another thing is that we have the Anti-Corruption Transparency Units in all the agencies; these units are being supervised by our officers. They are collaborating with whistle-blowers in the various ministries and agencies…”

When one of our correspondents contacted the Resident Consultant, Media and Events of the ICPC, Mr. Folu Olamiti, for his comment on the telephone, he said that he was aware of the presence of the ARMTU and its constitutional functions but asked our correspondent to call back for a response on the current investigation.

However, our correspondent could not get him to comment on the story as the subsequent calls to his mobile telephone did not connect.

The Federal Government has expressed its worry about the rate of corruption in the civil service.

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Lamorde, had in the past urged a former Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Alhaji Bukar Goni Aji, to put in place an internal mechanism to check the negative trend.

The commission had in a statement by its spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, quoted Lamorde as citing the involvement of civil servants in the pension fraud investigations.


Lamorde had said, “You should look inward and focus on issues of welfare that may be the cause of the incessant corrupt acts. Even though this is not an excuse before the law, we should be able to ask ourselves why for example most properties in the Federal Capital Territory are found to be owned by civil servants through proxies.”

The Ahmed Joda Transition Committee has also lamented the corruption and inefficiency in the civil service.

The committee, in its report submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari, noted that the public service was characterised by weak governance, bureaucratic bottlenecks and low professional standards.

In the report, a copy of which was obtained by The PUNCH on Wednesday, the committee said that there was low productivity, graft as well as inefficiency in the civil service.

It recommended that the public service should place emphasis on performance

According to the committee, government should “implement a merit-based performance management system, recruitment and deployment process.”

It added that government should “set clearly defined goals and targets for public officers and consequences for non-implementation.”

Meanwhile, wife of the senate president, Mrs. Toyin Saraki, again reported at the EFCC office on Wednesday to continue her interrogation by anti-graft operatives.

She arrived at the commission by 10 am and was released to go on administrative bail by 4.30pm.

Administrative bail means that Mrs Saraki would make herself available at the commission any time she is required to do so.

Her interrogation had commenced on Tuesday when EFCC operatives were said to have grilled her for over six hours.

The senate president’s wife is being investigated for her role in the alleged sleaze that took place during her husband’s tenure as governor of Kwara State.

She was alleged to have involved herself in the award of contracts in the state and laundering of millions of naira.

As information continues to emerge of the
billions of dollars of public funds that Nigeria’s
former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-
Madueke, stole with the help of cohorts she
handpicked, the embattled former minister is
apparently playing the sick card in the United
Kingdom where she has spent most of her time
since ex-President Goodluck Jonathan lost his
reelection bid.
In recent days, several online media have
reported that Ms. Alison-Madueke was critically
sick in a London hospital. However, two sources
in the UK who are quite conversant with the
former minister’s physical condition told
SaharaReporters today that her condition had
not deteriorated, contrary to media reports.
One of the sources went as far as suggesting
that the ex-Petroleum Minister might be
orchestrating the reports about her grave ill
health as a strategy to attract public sympathy
as well as official leniency from President
Muhammadu Buhari who has received
extensive intelligence from US authorities
detailing the extent of Ms. Alison-Madueke’s
looting of petro-dollars under the watch of Mr.
Jonathan.
One of our UK sources disclosed that the
beleaguered former minister recently
concluded a course of treatment for cancer,
adding that she is not hospitalized in London as
being touted by some members of her family.
Another source revealed that he and others
were in touch with the former minister as
recently as yesterday. “She is definitely not in
an ICU [intensive care unit] as I understand that
some press people have been reporting,” the
source said. According to him, “All I know is
that there is a fair amount of anxiety on her
part about all the reports coming out about her
management of the affairs of the oil sector.
Perhaps this anxiety is translating into efforts
to portray her as sicker than she is, in reality.
That strategy is understandable, as a way of
lessening public reaction to reports that are out
there. And there’s considerable uncertainty
about what [President] Buhari is going to do.
So, yes, there’s an advantage to the reports [of
her critical ill health], but I can tell you she’s
not in any devastated shape. Far from it.”
A series of coordinated reports about Ms.
Alison-Madueke’s ill health began to surface
after SaharaReporters revealed that US officials
handed a dossier of the former minister’s
billion dollar fraudulent deals to President
Muhammad Buhari during his visit last week to
America.
Yesterday, in a move that corroborated our
report, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo
State told reporters at the State House in Abuja
that US officials informed Mr. Buhari that a
Nigerian minister under President Jonathan
stole as much as $6 billion from the Nigerian
treasury. Even though Mr. Oshiomhole did not
disclose the name of the minister involved, a
source at the Presidency confirmed to
SaharaReporters that Ms. Alison-Madueke was
the minister in question. Governor Oshiomhole
was the only governor in President Buhari’s
delegation when he held a critical meeting with
US Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, at Blair
House in Washington, DC. Ms. Lynch, who is
known to be tough on crime, especially
international fraud, reportedly pledged US
assistance to arrest and prosecute the former
Petroleum Minister and others who have
defrauded the Nigerian people provided that
Mr. Buhari would take steps to identify and
flush out corrupt judges from the Nigerian
judiciary.
Mr. Oshiomhole said that US officials, who
were astonished by the size of looting that took
place under Mr. Jonathan’s administration,
declared that the funds stolen by one minister
were staggering even for an economy as big as
that of the United States. The former
Petroleum Minister was known to be
extraordinarily close to Mr. Jonathan, who
refused to remove her from his cabinet
despite numerous credible reports of her illicit
and corrupt deals.
SaharaReporters earlier reported that Ms.
Alison-Madueke had attempted to send
emissaries to President Buhari offering to
return $250 million from her loot in return for
being shielded from prosecution. One of the
associates she contacted is a northern governor
known to be close to Mr. Buhari. A highly
reliable source told SaharaReporters that Mr.
Buhari rejected the offer, contending that he
would uncover how much Ms. Alison-Madueke
and her fronts looted from the Nigerian
treasury. “Mr. President is not interested in
settling for small change. He has sworn to the
Nigerian people that he will recover the vast
sums stolen by officials of past government,
especially those of President Jonathan. He is
determined to keep his pledge to the Nigerian
people.”
Former Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido
Sanusi, had accused the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), an agency
under Ms. Alison-Madueke, of failing to deposit
more than $20 billion of oil earnings at the
CBN. Rather than launch a serious investigation,
then President Jonathan ran to the former
Petroleum Minister’s defense, and eased Mr.
Sanusi out of his job at the CBN.
Fresh reports are surfacing of how Ms. Alison-
Madueke used cohorts she handpicked to
systematically deprive Nigerians of billions of
dollars of oil revenues. Among the big players
in her web of oil scams are Kogi-born
businessman, Jide Omokore, Ben Peters, Igho
Salome, and Kola Aluko. The mega scams the
former minister pulled off with her trusted
hands involved opulent acquisition of at least
four private jets, a yacht, real estate in various
world locations, including New York, Dubai, and
London, and the transfer of huge sums to bank
accounts operated by shadowy companies in
Switzerland and several tax havens.
Ms. Alison-Madueke famously fell out with Mr.
Aluko over the latter’s reported romantic
involvement with ex-super model Naomi
Campbell. It is believed that Mr. Aluko
absconded with more than $1 billion that was
in his custody as a result of shady transactions
engineered and approved by the former
Petroleum Minister.

barcanista:
Saraki is a Progressive, same with Dino Malaye, Tinubu, Atiku, Toyin Saraki and Buhari. Why are they complaining?

APC... The only party that is playing the role of ruling and oppositing at the same time