CORRUPTION REVEALED: COMING TO EQUITY IN CLEAN HANDS!Under BUHARI, $2.8bn NNPC Loot Disappeared in Mystery…N2.06bn Squandered in Petroleum Trust Fund Inflated-Price*Why then Senate Investigation under Olusola Saraki Chairmanship was Aborted*Cover-Ups behind Shehu Shagari Overthrow, Vera Ifudu (ex-NTA Newscaster) Sack Exposed*Capt Usman Jibrin, PTF Board Member Resigned over Irregular Consultants’ Appointment* “Buhari’s Consulting Firms overcharged PTF to N2,057,550,062 by Inflated Prices”-Special Trust Fund Interim Management C’mitee Report*IBB, OBJ, Abdusalami step-up plans to stop Aso Rock from Investigating their Tenures* ‘Why Jonathan’s Administration is Guinea Pig for Corruption Fight’-INVESTIGATION

CORRUPTION REVEALED: COMING TO EQUITY IN CLEAN HANDS!

Under BUHARI, $2.8bn NNPC Loot Disappeared in Mystery…N2.06bn Squandered in Petroleum Trust Fund Inflated-Price

*Why then Senate Investigation under Olusola Saraki Chairmanship was Aborted

*Cover-Ups behind Shehu Shagari Overthrow, Vera Ifudu (ex-NTA Newscaster) Sack Exposed

*Capt Usman Jibrin, PTF Board Member Resigned over Irregular Consultants’ Appointment

* “Buhari’s Consulting Firms overcharged PTF to N2,057,550,062 by Inflated Prices”-Special Trust Fund Interim Management C’mitee Report

*IBB, OBJ, Abdusalami step-up plans to stop Aso Rock from Investigating their Tenures

* ‘Why Jonathan’s Administration is Guinea Pig for Corruption Fight’-INVESTIGATION

BY GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU/CNN iReport NORTH AMERICA & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, NAIJA STANDARD

“IN this context, it is legitimate for us to examine the root cause of crime and corruption: the poverty that stares us in the face; the illegitimacy of the previous order which elevated lawlessness into an honorable deed; the sanctions of era which made underhand dealings a glorified national pastime; and the low pay and repressive focus in the security and other public services which turned upon their head the moral standards that these institutions are supposed to uphold”, as stated by Nelson Madiba Mandela seems so apt in detailing the unpublished reports of Special Trust Fund Interim Management Report under the Chairmanship of Haroun Adamu over a decade ago; whose Committee discovered that billions of Naira was stolen under General Muhammadu Buhari’s then Petroleum Trust Fund chairmanship, whom history has now entrusted leadership of Africa’s most populous black nation being President under the ruling party of All Progressives Party, (APC).

CNN iReport investigation confirmed that Buhari had single-handedly ‘appointed’ some Consultant firms and out-rightly outsourced to them various huge contracts in clear breach of ‘modus operandi’ clearly laid out in the Petroleum Trust Fund, PTF, extant rules and policies. It was to be discovered that these contractors made away with a staggering sum of N2,057,550,062 through various price-inflated, over-invoicing all round the projects that spread from roads/waterways to housing, education and other sectors of government projects. Sensing foul-play, General Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president on July 7, 1999 mandated Haroun chairmanship to look critically into this ‘corruption’ closely. The report , very damning says the “PTF under Buhari’s supervision was mismanaged.”

The report was however neither made public nor was it acted upon by Obasanjo. In its summary, the Committee had advised Obasanjo to “set up a high powered judicial panel to recover the huge public fund and to take necessary action against any officer, consultant or contractor whose negligence resulted in this colossal loss of public funds.” According to the report, the sum of N25,758,532,448 was mismanaged by the Afri-Project Consortium (APC), a company contracted by the PTF as management and project consultant. Buhari as PTF chairman was said to have also “delegated to them the power of Engineer in all appropriate project requiring such power,” which made them assume absolute powers to initiate, approve and execute all projects by the PTF.

The mismanagement that took place in the PTF under Buhari’s watch was said to have been carried out by the APC (the company) in their capacity as management and project consultants. Both their management services fee and budget for several projects carried out during the existence of the PTF were greatly overpriced. While carrying out its obligations, the Committee made up of Dr. Haroun Adam as Chairman, and Alhaji Abdu Abdurrahim, Mr Achana Gaius Yaro, Edward Eguavoen, Mr. T. Andrew Adegboro and Mr. Baba Goni Machina as members, engaged three management consulting firms to verify all payments made to PTF from inception to September 30, 1999. On verification, according to the Committee, “it was found that they (the consulting firms) had overcharged PTF for their services to the tune of N2,057,550,062”.

Also, while intervening on behalf of the PTF in the road and waterways, education, food, health, and other sectors, the APC, according to the report, inflated all the prices. For instance, intervention in the health sector, was said to have totalled N9 billion. Projects in this sector were said to have been executed by the APC and PTF in-house staff, and loss of billions of naira were recorded due to price inflation of products and services. To purchase spectacle frames, which could have been done locally at a price between N80 to N880, the APC, under the watch of the PTF chairman, bought them at an inflated price of N1,900 each. Ambulances were said to have been purchased at N13 million per unit, instead of N3 million. And then price inflation of drugs were done to the tune of N1.5 billion. The report also said that the PTF lost money to the tune of N3.5 billion from its bank account operations.

The PTF operated its bank accounts under three different categories: Administration, Project and Treasury accounts, and the loss of money to these accounts were said to have been due to “overcharge on Cost of Turnover (CoT), non-payment of interest on current account balances as stipulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), short payment of interest on deposited funds, and other various discrepancies.” While discharging their duties, the Committee discovered that an average income of N182 billion accrued to the PTF from its inception to the date of filing their report. According to the Committee’s report, the PTF used about 70 per cent of that income on highways and urban road projects. The report stated further that, “In this project sector there was total variation of contract sums of N68 billion. These variations were not done with properly priced bills of quantities and approved civil contracts procedure as stipulated by government regulations. “Taking the experience of what has been discovered after verification of various contracts awarded by PTF the minimum potential recovery will be about 15%. This estimated percentage will be about N10 billion. The verification of this project sector was about to take off when the committee members were replaced.”

Buhari’s NNPC $2.8bn Cookie Jar, Overthrow of Shehu Shagari Government

History always have its ways of recording human activities: be it good or evil. Certainly, no one is in doubt globally of Buhari’s ‘Mr. Integrity’ stance on matter of corruption. Earlier as then Petroleum Minister in 1976, under the regime of General Murtala Mohammed, a whooping sum of $2.8 billion (worth billions of naira today) was missing from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) account, as it was alleged to ‘have developed wings and escaped’ Abroad. There were insinuations in some quarters then that “fronts who were loyalists of Buhari had allegedly emptied the fund with no trace.” The matter was subject to Senate investigation under the chairmanship of Olusola Saraki in 1983, a ranking nobleman and parliamentarian of the Ilorin Emirate in the second republic. CNN iReport gathered that before the report could be dealt with, Buhari purposely overthrew the Alhaji Shehu Shagari government in a military coup d’état to cover up his tracks. And the Saraki’s report on the NNPC loot never saw the light of the day.

Vera Ifudu Sack Exposed

By then, Vera Ifudu, an ace newscaster for Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), revealed that Saraki told her in an interview that the missing money ($2.8bn) was traced to Buhari’s account at Midland Bank in London. For this disclosure, Vera was summarily sacked by the NTA. CNN iReport reportedly gathered she appealed against her dismissal in court and won. She even received a handsome financial compensation for wrongful dismissal from the NTA.

Why Buhari Declines appearance on Oputa Panel

Rather than clear his name as ‘Mr. Integrity’, Buhari deliberately refused to appear before the Justice Chukwudi Oputa Panel set up to look into the matter (among under things) by the Obasanjo administration. Buhari claims to be an anti-corruption crusader, nevertheless, he agreed to serve under Sani Abacha, one of the most corrupt Heads-of-State ever in the history of Nigeria. While there has been no proven allegation that Buhari corruptly enriched himself as Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund under Abacha, it is abundantly clear that this fabled anti-corruption crusader failed to curb the rampant corruption that prevailed in the organization. Group Captain Usman Jibrin, a board member of PTF, resigned from the organization in protest over Buhari’s irregular appointments of consultants. In 2000, the Obasanjo administration set up an Interim Management Committee to look into the affairs of the PTF, under the chairmanship of Haroun Adamu. The Committee discovered that billions of naira was stolen under Buhari’s chairmanship.

IBB, OBJ, Abdusalami to stop Aso Rock from Investigating their Tenures

CNNiReport further investigation showed in a ‘final meeting’ held in the private residence of an erstwhile Head of State, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, (IBB) in Minna, Niger State under the cover of darkness, prompted by Obasanjo’s phone call to IBB, attended by General Abdusalami Abubakar, another ex-Nigerian Head of State some weeks ago; all the activities of Buhari were tabled, and analyzed, especially his corruption fight. It was then allegedly agreed that they should take a pro-active step to stop the ‘Aso Rock’ from investigating their tenures to avoid opprobrium and humiliation in the eyes of the world. To this end, a press statement issued by IBB through his media adviser, Prince Kassim Afegbua, reportedly reads: “On General Buhari, it is not in IBB’s tradition to take up issues with his colleague former president. But, for the purpose of the record, we are conversant with General Buhari’s so-called holier-than-thou-attitude. He is a one-time minister of petroleum and we have good records of his tenure. Secondly, he also presided over Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) which records we also have. We challenge him to come out in clean hands in those two portfolios he headed. Or, we will help him to expose his records of performance during those periods. Those who live in glass houses do not throw stones. General Buhari should be properly guided.”

‘Why Jonathan’s Administration is Guinea Pig for Corruption Fight’-INVESTIGATION

Information reaching CNNiReport confirmed that Buhari have made up his mind “not to investigate the tenures of Obasanjo, IBB, and Abdusalami with fear of reprisal attack from those Army Generals who may be ready to fight dirty and rubbish the Integrity of Mr. President. Having seen the handwriting on the wall, Buhari back-down on probing them; rather concentrating on investigating virtually all the ministers that worked under former president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (his predecessor) just to cast aspersion and tinker on the ‘Noble Peace Prize’ intention and under-study being carried out for successful and peacefully conceding power over to him reigns of government on May 28,2015 in Eagle Square, Abuja, Nigeria.

“He that comes to Equity, should come in clean Hands. We strongly believe the onus now solely rest on Buhari to clear these controversial areas and holistically fight corruption, no matter whose Ox is Gored: be he Civilian or Army General; since we are all Nigerians. Posterity has beckoned on him now to kill Corruption in Nigeria; but if he refuses, Corruption may kill Nigeria”-MANAGEMENT