I don’t take nonsense, probe me and tell the world who killed 3 million
Igbo’s, probe me and the oil will stop running – Obasanjo fire Buhari
May 26, 2018
I don’t take nonsense, probe me and tell the
world who killed 3 million Igbo’s, probe me
and the oil will stop running – Obasanjo fire Buhari
-
Inside EFCC report on corruption
allegations against Obasanjo
As President Muhammadu
Buhari and a former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, continue to engage in a war
of words, PREMIUM TIMES has obtained a report by the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission regarding corruption allegations against Mr Obasanjo.
The clash between the
president and one of his predecessors was triggered when Mr Buhari, while
receiving a delegation of the Buhari Support Organisation at the Presidential
Villa on May 22, indirectly accused Mr Obasanjo ofwasting $16 billion on power
projects with nothing to show for it.
Mr Obasanjo immediately
fired back at the president describing his claims as ignorant and
unsubstantiated.
The report, signed by the then EFCC’s
Director of Operations, Ibrahim Lamorde, addressed allegations of conspiracy,
fraudulent conversion of funds, abuse of office, foreign exchange conversion
and money laundering against the former president.
The petitions
On August 22, 2005, the then
governor of Abia State
A second petition was
delivered two years later – in November 2007 – by the Coalition Against Corrupt
Leaders, a nongovernmental organisation headed by Debo Adeniran, a civil
society activist.
The two petitions were
consolidated into a single 12-point petition which dealt largely on allegations
that Mr Obasanjo’s aides and some Senators connived and took huge sums of money
in oil and commissions from Defence contracts.
The petition also alleged
that the hostels and sports complex at Mr Obasanjo’s Bells Secondary School
It also accused the former
president of, as the Petroleum Minister between 1999 and 2006, overseeing “a
significant number of fraud” in crude oil sales and accrued commissions in the
Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
Other allegations against Mr
Obasanjo include the “evidence” that he owned foreign accounts, including a
Platinum Credit Card, with which he siphoned money and made purchases abroad;
that a “₦6.5 billion proceeds” realised from the
appeal fund for the construction of Mr Obasanjo’s Presidential Library were
diverted to private use; and that Mr Obasanjo used his presidential powers to
approve a licence to Obasanjo Farms, which was in “shambles” while he was in
prison, to be sole importer of grant parent stock of chicken.
The petition also included
allegations that the federal government under Mr Obasanjo exceeded its spending
on Ministries, Departments, and Agencies by about ₦133 billion in the 2005 budget and that ₦521 billion was sunk into the now defunct Power Holding
Company of Nigeria , and yet,
Nigeria
The petitioners further
alleged that the former president, while still in office, allegedly diverted
official funds to buy about 200 million units of Transcorp shares; used state
funds to pursue his ‘Third term’ agenda; and spent about ₦300 billion on construction and maintenance of Nigeria’s
roads, yet, “there are still no good roads.”
The EFCC said after
receiving the petitions, it sent out an investigating team to visit Bells Secondary
School
Furthermore, according to
the Commission, a letter was written to Mr Kalu inviting him to meet with the
EFCC investigating team and assist the investigation by supplying evidence to
help substantiate the allegations he raised.
“This was followed by series
of telephone calls to all his houses both in Nigeria
“A final appeal, through
publication of the invitation, was made in newspapers. All these spirited
efforts were unacknowledged as Chief Kalu declined repeated invitations.
“The second petitioner, the
Chairman of CACOL, Mr Debo Adeniran, appeared in the Commission in Lagos
Contacted on Friday night,
Mr Adeniran confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that he did submit a petition against Mr
Obasanjo in November 2007 at the EFCC’s Lagos
Mr Adediran said following
the petition, the then EFCC chairman, Farida Waziri, set up a five-man panel to
look into the allegations.
“I was only invited to adopt
the petition, the panel did not invite us again, even after Mr Obasanjo gave
his response, they didn’t invite us to puncture his claims,” Mr Adediran said.
Obasanjo responds
In his response to the
allegations against him to the EFCC, Mr Obasanjo denied any wrongdoing or
involvement in corrupt acts.
He said his Obasanjo Farms
was ‘structurally developed’ between 1979 and 1995 and was making a substantial
profit before his detention in 1995 caused the farm to suffer a reversal of
fortune.
However, by 1998, Mr
Obasanjo, according to the report, said the farm was reorganised “towards a new
profitability path that spurred its full rehabilitation and expansion.”
On Bells Schools, Mr
Obasanjo said all the construction in the school since inception in 1995 had
been done through direct labour which was supervised by himself and other
officials..
On the issue of crude oil
sales and fraud in the Petroleum Ministry, Mr Obasanjo said the Group Managing
Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, and the Minister of
State for Petroleum, were fully responsible and should be contacted for more
information.
The former president said he
has never owned a Platinum Credit Card or carried one “all his life.”
He also denied having a
foreign account anywhere in the world and called on the EFCC to undertake a
global search and of any such account was found, it should be frozen and the
proceeds be published and subsequently seized.
Concerning the defence
contractor, Mr Obasanjo said the ministers of defence were in a better position
to provide the details.
What EFCC found
The EFCC said based on its
own investigation, Bells Schools started off in 1991 with two blocks of burnt
bricks hostels, one each for boys and girls, as well as a few number of
classrooms.
“That by 1998 two additional
blocks of hostels were added, again one each for both and girls. Investigations
revealed that these blocks of hostels were built by direct labour contrary to
the claims in the petition that it was built by Strabag Construction Company
Limited,” the report said.
The report noted that
Strabag Construction Company never participated in building the sports complex
or hostels at any of Mr Obasanjo’s institutions.
On the Defence contracts,
the EFCC said investigators showed that the Ministry awarded contracts ranging
from military equipment to other related hardware valued at about ₦6.7 billion, $28 million, €26 million, DM6 million.
“All documents pertaining to
importations, bank statements, payments and supplies made by Ministry of
Defence were scrutinised and nowhere did it show that any benefit accrued to
any individual or group associated or in any way linked to Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo,” stated the report.
On the various contracts
awarded by the NNPC and the Petroleum Ministry, the investigators also found
that contracts valued at over $300 billion and ₦500,
awarded to over 20 different companies, were neither directly nor indirectly
linked to Mr Obasanjo.
The report’s findings on the
Presidential Library showed that its fundraising launch on May 14, 2007,
realised ₦3.5 billion and $250,000. Of that sum, ₦1.3 billion was paid to the project contractor, Messrs
Gitto Construction Company of Nigeria
On May 26, 1999, three days
before he was sworn in as President, Mr Obasanjo entered into a Trust Agreement
with Lucky Egede, a lawyer, and Daniel Atsu, whose both addresses were situated
at Obasanjo Farms Nigeria Limited, Ota, Ogun State to handle the affairs of the
entire farm, according to the report.
The former president’s name
was also removed from the list of Directors of the Farms in 1999 when he was
going into public office, the report added.
The Trust Agreement with
Messrs Egede and Atsu were terminated immediately after Mr Obasanjo left office
in 2007.
“That investigation revealed
that the Obasanjo Farms had steadily grown its balance sheet over the year
(sic) through credits obtained from various banks long before he was
president,” stated the report.
“That between 1988 and 1998,
over ₦41 million was borrowed from First
Bank, Union Bank, NAL Merchant Bank, Afribank, and UBA and this was used to
grow the Farms while proceeds through profits were reinvested into farms.
“These loans, it was
gathered during investigation, had since been repaid.”
On the Transcorp shares, the
EFCC said the blind trust managers of the former president’s businesses
approached the UBA for ₦500 million credit with which they
bought 500 million units of Transcorp shares as ₦1
each.
“It was also revealed that
the shares were used as collaterals and when the president was approached on
the matter, he opted to yield back the shares to UBA as it became apparent that
this has a strong public concern.
“The decision he took was to
return it to UBA where it had been warehoused all along.”
The EFCC further stated that
between 1999 and 2007, the PHCN received over ₦273.65
billion and not ₦521 billion and that the appropriation
was for its day to day activities, including generation of electricity,
transmission, and distribution.
The various contracts awarded in
relation to electricity generation, according to the report, amounted to ₦22 billion, $445 million, and €29 million.
“All the documents relating
to payments have been checked and scrutinised and there was no reference whatsoever
to the former president, his relations, or any front benefitted from the
contracts.”
The report further stated it
could not establish that Mr Obasanjo diverted public funds for the pursuit of
his ‘Third term’ agenda even after the Commission “threw public challenges
soliciting for evidence from anti-third term forces in the National Assembly.”
“Going by the evidence from
the facts assembled during the course of the investigation, Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo could not be directly linked with the allegations,” the report
concluded.
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