The United States of America has handed
over the names of Nigerian oil thieves to President Muhammadu Buhari, a
member of the President’s entourage during last week’s visit to the US
confided in The PUNCH on Tuesday.
“I can tell you that the President
already has the list of names of the people engaging in the stealing of
Nigeria’s oil. The list, when released by the President, will shock
Nigerians. But let’s wait and see first,” the source said.
The source said Buhari was taken aback
when he saw the names on the list and that the list given to the
President by the US might compel him to probe the administration of
former President Goodluck Jonathan.
A Presidency source also confirmed that Buhari had such a list but that “the President has been keeping the list to himself.”
The source, who told our correspondent
about the list in the President’s possession, said the US gave Buhari
two separate lists – one listing the names of top government officials
who have been stealing the country’s oil, using their high offices to
perpetrate the stealing; and the other containing the names of illegal
oil bunkerers.
The President had said last week that
some ministers in the cabinet of Jonathan were stealing as much as
250,000 barrels of Nigeria’s crude daily.
The Presidency source, who spoke to one
of our correspondents on condition of anonymity, said Buhari had vowed
that those whose names appeared on the list would not go scot-free.
“The President will probe all of them
and make sure they return whatever fortune they had made from their
thievery,” the source said.
The source said the President was
already tinkering with the idea of constituting a panel to investigate
those on the list with a view to arriving at how to deal with them based
on the findings of the committee.
However, it was gathered that, unlike
the usual probe panels, the President would likely set up a special
security team to handle the probe.
The PUNCH learnt that the names
on the list of oil thieves are a mixture of highly placed government
officials, and retired and serving military officers.
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress
said on Tuesday that it supported the probe of the Jonathan
administration by Buhari in the light of mind-boggling corruption that
had been uncovered by the Federal Government.
“Some people have insinuated that the
Buhari administration should ignore the massive looting of our patrimony
and move on. We say no responsible government can afford to do that,
because it will amount to endorsing corruption and impunity,’’ the party
said in a statement issued in Abuja by its National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
The APC said billions of dollars had
been skimmed off by “pathologically-corrupt public officials” in the oil
sector alone, wondering how the government of the day could meet its
obligations to the citizens if it refused to recover the huge funds
taken away by thieving officials
Mohammed’s statement read, ‘‘It is an
irony that those who are suggesting that the Buhari administration
should turn a blind eye to the incomprehensible looting are the same
ones accusing the government of not doing anything.
“It is even a cruel irony that the same
party that presided over what is fast emerging as the worst governance
in the history of our country is the same one that is daily bad-mouthing
an administration that is cleaning up its mess.
‘‘Where does one start from? Is it the
fact that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation failed to remit
N3.8tn to the Federation Account or the mind-blowing stealing of 250,000
barrels of crude oil per day?
“Is it the fact that the NNPC itself
does not know how many bank accounts it had or into which ones the
payments for Nigerian crude are made? Could anyone have imagined that a
government minister would steal the unprecedentedly-huge amount of US
$6bn of public funds as being alleged?
‘‘How does any sane person rationalise
the fact that $1bn was unilaterally and illegally withdrawn from the
Excess Crude Account just because, as the immediate past Minister of
Finance has disclosed, the President ordered the withdrawal? What about
the billions of naira waivers recklessly approved to dubious importers
by the Jonathan administration?”
It added, ‘‘Is it not clear now that the
stealing and the profligacy – more than anything else, including the
fall in oil price – helped to drastically reduce the monthly allocation
from the Federation Account from about N800bn to about N400bn , thus
pauperising the states and the local governments, and by extension the
citizenry?
“Against the background of the stunning
revelations, what message will any government be sending to its citizens
and indeed the global community by looking the other way, when it could
still recover some of the looted funds for the benefit of the people?
“This is why we are supporting the
Buhari administration’s probe decision and we are calling on all
Nigerians to support ongoing efforts to get to the root of the matter.”
The APC said it was clear that the
Jonathan administration had deliberately delayed giving the then
incoming Buhari government the handover notes so as to avoid being asked
critical questions pertaining to the looting under its watch.
Also, the Peoples Democratic Party said
it was on the same page with Buhari in the fight against corruption, but
that due process must be followed.
The PDP, in a statement by its National
Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, in Abuja on Tuesday, said the
clarification became necessary so as to remove any misconception that it
was against the decision of the present administration to probe some
past officials of government because they were PDP members.
Metuh said, “The PDP supports the decision of the Federal Government to fight corruption in our country.
“However, we make bold to state that it
should not be disguised to victimise innocent citizens. Democracy has
come to stay in Nigeria and no citizen, irrespective of political,
religious or ethnic affiliation, should be denied access to due process
and the rule of law in the process.”
He added, “Furthermore, we make bold to
state that he who comes to equity must come with clean hands. In that
regard, therefore, we advise members of the APC blowing the horn ahead
of the cart to keep quiet because many of them have been major
beneficiaries of corruption and sleaze associated with themselves and
their allies, especially one of them who as a disguised errand boy of a
well-known APC leader is a major beneficiary of the largesse of
perpetrators of corruption.
“Apart from Mr. President, who for now,
is not associated with any sleaze or corrupt activity in this democracy,
most APC leaders are still those who as governors, ministers and labour
leaders have been the worst corrupt set of Nigerians ever to bestride
the political landscape of the country.
“It is a great miscarriage of perception
therefore for the APC leaders who are perpetrators of sleaze and
corrupt acts to attempt to deceive Nigerians with imaginary holiness in
this anti-corruption war by the President.”
Consequently, he called on the
President, as the leader of the APC to remove the log in the eyes of his
party while “we support his commitment to remove the speck from the
eyes of others.”
PUNCH