Okoi Obono-Obla, a former aide to ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, in a recent interview, made damning allegations against the Buhari administration’s handling of corruption cases.
The former Chairman of the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property claimed that some assets recovered from corrupt individuals were “returned to the people we recovered those things from”, including 80 brand new S-class Mercedes Benz cars, houses, farms, and motorcycles.
Furthermore, Obono-Obla revealed that a Nigerian senator and former military governor was found to have over £200 million in offshore assets, but the Buhari administration took no action despite the evidence being presented to the President and the Attorney General.
Obono-Obla also alleged that his office was informed of a bank account in Texas, USA, containing over $69 billion in stolen crude oil proceeds. However, he claimed that the Buhari administration failed to investigate or take any action on this matter.
When asked, “how bad is the corruption in the Nigerian system” he said, “Some of the things I recovered were returned to the people we recovered those things from. For instance, there was this case of somebody we recovered 80 S class Mercedes Benz cars, brand new, houses, farms, motorcycles and so forth, in a house in Jabi under information…”
Speaking about another scenario of a corrupt politician, Obono-Obla said, “A Nigerian senator, former military governor was mentioned that he has properties in off-shore islands, since I didn’t have the structures to investigate this issue, which is oversea, I went to the DG. NIA, saying please let us work together to do this investigation.
“They did the investigation, the report was sent to me, I sent one to the president and I sent one to the Attorney-general, that this man has over £200 million in off-shore islands…nothing till today.
“What of the $69 billion? I got a letter, I didn’t prompt them, saying that they habe access to a bank account in Texas that has over USD$69 billion, proceeds from stolen crude oil; the proceeds from the crude oil is $60 billion, the $9 billion is…they mentioned the name, Patrick Aziza, who was National Security Adviser and I thought that it was beyond me so I wrote to the president that this is what this firm has alleged, so they’re asking for money, that if we make some payments available they will give us the holders of the account number, the bank account and so forth and so on, so I went to the president saying “approve!” $69 billion, it’s a lot of money, nothing up till now.”
These revelations raise serious questions about the Buhari administration’s commitment to fighting corruption and holding corrupt officials accountable, despite its anti-corruption rhetoric.
