– President Buhari has extended the investigation of corrupt practices beyond Jonathan’s administration
– There are indications that administration before Jonathan began the scheme of adding non-exiting projects to budget
– The minister of justice says there is a compilation of agencies that have allowed these corrupt practices to thrive
There are strong indications that President Muhammadu Buhari will extend his crackdown on corruption beyond the administration of former president, Goodluck Jonathan.
Former presidents, Goodluck jonathan and Olusegun Obasanjo
According to Vanguard, the probe is expected to begin from 1999 when Nigeria returned to democratic rule.
READ ALSO: ICPC urges Nigerians to report corrupt practices
According to a report, top politicians used their influences to smuggle projects into the budgets of many parastatals and browbeat their heads to transfer the money meant for such schemes to them under an agreed sharing formula.
The usual practise was for the politicians to nominate the ‘contractor’ who would receive money but disappear apparently to share with their nominator. Others would abandon the projects half way.
Notable scheme include the River Basin authorities spread across the country which politicians were said to have turned into cash cows over the years. Others are rural electrification, water and health-related agencies that were used as conduits by politicians for siphoning huge sums of money over the years.
Abubakar Malami who is the attorney general of the federation said his office in conjunction with security agencies was working to bring those who brought non-existing projects into budgets to siphon money.
He said: “The aim of the investigation was to prosecute those who aided and abetted politicians to defraud the nation of scarce resources and deny the citizens of basic services. The federal government is interested in fishing out and punishing all those heads of parastatals who allowed themselves to be used by influential persons in the executive and legislative arms of government by smuggling non-existing projects into successive budgets and making away with large sums of money budgeted for them,”
“You will recall that over time there has been this criminal conspiracy among some levels of government resulting in budget padding by many of the parastatals and the money diverted and shared by some powerful individuals to the detriment of majority of Nigerians, who have been denied vital services. The present administration has taken note of the painful antics of a few powerful elements and we have decided to fish them out and punish them for others to see that corruption is not in the interest of anybody in Nigeria.”
READ ALSO: How former NIMASA boss stole N795m
The minister of justice said they were compiling lists of agencies involved in the crime and the amount Nigeria has lost so far.
A source in one of the anti-graft agencies revealed that of the parastatals located in Calabar which was supposed to cater for Cross River and Akwa Ibom states is believed to have been actively aiding powerful politicians to make away with hundreds of millions of Naira yearly. This was done under the guise of providing water and rural feeder roads, farm equipment and training to Nigerians without any verifiable evidence.
Meanwhile, President Buhari came under criticism for not referring to Abacha’s money outside the country as loot. His spokesperson, Garba Shehu referred to it as illegal money taken from Nigeria rather than money embezzled by Abacha.
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