An investigation report published by Vanguard on Saturday has disclosed that President Bola Tinubu is on the verge of recovering over $14 billion of looted funds traced to a few individuals in ex-President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
A source in the presidential villa cited by the publication made reference to an investigation by Jim Obaze, the Special Investigator appointed by President Tinubu, and confirmed that billions of dollars have been traced to certain individuals, with just two people possessing over $14bn of looted public funds.
It could be argued that the major highlight of the investigation report is the questions asked by the sources privy to what is going on according to Vanguard.
One of the sources said: “some of the figures you get to hear are troubling. What does anybody want to do with $6 billion? What does anybody want to do with $8 billion? These figures are something else”.
Another source asked: “Is it that some of these people were the ones to whom funds for the purchase of our crude oil were paid? Did they pay these people directly for crude oil sales or what?”
Most worrisome, it was gathered that Jim Obaze has not been sitting pretty on the investigative job as a result of constant meddling and needless interference from a few powerful players in the present administration even though President Tinubu has given him the Magna Charter to dig into everything that had to do with how funds from Nigeria’s treasury disappeared or found their way into private hands.
It was gathered that the billions of dollars were looted from over-invoicing to forgeries, unauthorised releases, influence-peddling, funds diversion, arms deals, forex deals and other financial malfeasances.
“Also, the monies printed using the instrumentality of ways and means, amounting to over N30 Trillion during the Buhari administration, suffered a series of alleged mishaps, leading to diversion and unaccountability,” the investigation report said.
Nevertheless, what remains as a major concern is about how the looted funds which are about to be recovered by President Tinubu will not be re-looted like the Abacha loot. CONTINUE READING