President Muhammadu Buhari, who had thought that he had seen the worst
of how corrupt practices have in the last few years brought Nigeria to
her knees, last week, almost lost his cool when it was brought to his
attention that a whopping $16billion – at the official exchange rate of
N196, this comes to N3.136 trillion; while, with the parallel market
rate of N315, it comes to a whopping N5.04trillion – of the nation’s
crude oil revenue loss could be traced to some sharp practices by
some individuals in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
The quantum of funds in question are revenue that ought to have accrued
to Federal Government through oil-lifting deals which are now subject of
intensive investigations.
Specifically, one of the arrow heads of the crude oil lifting scam...
who has been invited and interrogated by the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC, at least twice before, has been granted
administrative bail, and “who is alleged to be warehousing a sizable
chunk of the money, drew the ire of Mr. President”, an Aso Rock
Presidential Villa source disclosed.
According to Vanguard, even visiting South African President, Jacob
Zuma, was caught in the cross winds of Buhari’s reinvigorated
anti-graft stand, as he said every kobo of the stolen funds must be
recovered.
Similarly, information suggests that the United States government is
helping in the provision of intelligence on how to trace some of the
stolen funds from Nigeria that were secretly moved out.
Benin Republic and South Africa have both become safe havens for Nigeria’s stolen funds.
$16BILLION
According to Aso Rock insiders, the funds were “supposed to be proceeds
from some of the crude oil sold on behalf of the Federal Government of
Nigeria by these people and for which they were said not to have made
the necessary returns to the coffers of the country”.
Continuing, one of the sources said: “You
needed to have been there. You needed to have seen Mr. President. He was
almost moved to tears at the colossal fraud that had taken place in the
country.
“He became dejected because at a time when the nation’s resources had
gone down badly, at a time when the foreign reserves are also not as
much as would be befitting of a nation with vast potentials, such a huge
amount of money can be traced to the illegal activities of some people.
“But Mr. President has ordered that every kobo must be recovered.
Whatever it takes, he has made it clear that those funds must be
recovered.”
Records of the oil-lifting schedules, timelines of transactions as well
as proceeds that were meant to have accrued to government, the source
said, “showed that some people just constituted themselves into a
parallel government and were just making away with the nation’s
resources.”
TRACING STOLEN FUNDS
Powerful forces in the Goodluck Jonathan's presidency were neck deep in
the mindless looting. As part of its bilateral agreement on intelligence
sharing and anti-money laundering surveillance, the US government is
collaborating with the Buhari administration on how to trace some of the
stolen funds.
It was discovered that whereas the Federal Government has relaxed its
forex policy, there has been a heavy movement of cash (in dollars) from
Benin Republic back into the system in Nigeria.
The simmering diplomatic row between Nigeria and South Africa, sources
disclosed, has more to do with the seeming unwillingness of the South
African government to repatriate alleged stolen funds that have been
traced to that country.
“This was part of what President Zuma came to resolve with Nigeria during his visit last week.”
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