We will probe alleged missing $20b oil money, says Buhari
THE last may not have been heard of the alleged missing $20 billion as the
President- elect, Major-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), has said that his administration will probe into the $20 billion allegedly missing from the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
The former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria Mallam Sanuis Lamido Sanusi had alleged in a letter to the President that close to $50 billion was missing from the accounts of the corporation, but he later scaled it down to about $20 billion.
The allegation generated a lot of furore in the system as the Presidency saw the allegation as a calculated attempt to impugn its integrity and cast it in a picture of a corrupt administration.
As part of the consequences, President Jonathan suspended Sanusi who went to court to challenge his suspension in the courts before he was eventually appointed the Emir of Kano..
Buhari told a delegation of All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftains from Adamawa State who visited him at at his campaign headquarters in Abuja, that he said he would not allow the matter to swept under the carpet once he mounts the seat of power on May 29.
According to him, the fact that the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was ignominiously sacked after blowing the whistle on the alleged missing monies does not mean the matter had been rested.
Despite the NNPC had repeated denial of Sanusi’s claim on the missing $20 billion oil money and even the subsequent forensic audit report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers which the NNPC said cleared it of any backhand deals or malfeasant oil transactions, many Nigerians continue to cite as if it had been proven that money was actually stolen.
It was to become one of the major tools in the hands of the APC in the past general elections.
Buhari said that going by the huge sums of money involved, there was no way an APC-led administration that has the fight against corrupt practices as a cardinal objective, would sit by and watch some highly placed Nigerians loot the treasury.
Buhari, while recalling his experiences while on campaign tours across the country, said that he would not relent in redressing the problems of insecurity, unemployment and infrastructural decay in the polity.
Blaming the 16 years of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration for the rot in the country, he said it was unfortunate that the youths that constitute 60 per cent of the country’s population are jobless due to bad governance.
On the area of insecurity, Buhari wondered what must have gone wrong with the Nigerian armed forces known for its exploits in peace keeping operations in countries like Burma, Liberia, Sierra Leone over the years.
He, however commended the armed forces over the feat so far recorded against the Boko Haram Islamist group.
Promising that he would fix the infrastructural decay in schools, roads and hospitals once he mounts the saddle, the President-elect asked the people of Adamawa to be rest assured that an enabling environment would be put in place for them to exploit the natural resources that abound in the state.
He said unlike his home state of Katsina ravaged by dissertation leading to a mass exodus of able-bodied persons to other climes to eke out a living, the agricultural potentials in Adamawa would be harnessed to provide jobs to the teeming population of youths in the state.
Adamawa governor elect, Senator Jibrilla Bindow, who led the delegation, while congratulating the president-elect, urged him to help redress the problem of infrastructure, insecurity and youth unemployment plaguing the people of the state.
Nigeria is not new to such allegations as Buhari has been accused of making away with $2.8 billion during his time as petroleum minister.
