Posted on: 12:06 Tue, 01 Dec 2015



New information revealed by SR has
showed that Senate President Bukola
Saraki blackmailed officials of the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to
“bribe” him with N250million as
“hush” funds after the senator had
found out that ex-President Goodluck
Jonathan had illicitly approved
N60billion for the former National
Security Advisor (NSA), Sambo
Dasuki, to purchase “arms”.

An inside source, who is a senior
CBN official, disclosed that bank
officials paid the “bribe” to Saraki,
who was not the Senate President at
the time, to ensure that he and other
senators kept silent about the
irregular withdrawals by the NSA
and the Jonathan administration.

The inside source also revealed that
some officials of the Central Bank of
Nigeria had quietly resisted several
attempts by officials of the Jonathan
administration to carry out large-
scale theft of funds from the national
treasury in the name of fighting
Islamist insurgent group, Boko
Haram insurgents.

A CBN whistleblower made available
to our correspondent a hurriedly
typewritten document that detailed
how ex-NSA, Dasuki, requested
tranches of dollars from the bank
after obtaining approval from
former President Jonathan between
February and March this year.

According to the document, in third
week of February 2015 the former
NSA requested for $250 million from
the CBN, but got $200 million. In the
fourth week of February, the NSA
put in a request for $150 million but
received $125 million.

In the first week of March 2015, with
Nigeria’s postponed elections a few
weeks away, the NSA made a request
for another $250 million, but only
got $204 million. In the second week
of March, Mr. Dasuki again called for
$250 million, but the CBN provided
$104 million and N3 billion.

According to the whistleblower,
Abbas Umar Masanawa who was
appointed as the Executive Director
in charge of Finance and Strategy at
the Nigerian Minting Company by
the Central Bank Governor, Godwin
Emefiele as soon as he resumed as
CBN governor in 2014 played a
major role.

Our source said Mr. Abbas then
oversaw “the printing of an
unprecedented amount of naira by
the Mint,” adding “the printed cash
was passed on to President
Jonathan.” Masanawa was key aide
of Mr. Emefiele while he was the MD
of Zenith Bank before he got
appointed to the Mint.

The source revealed that Jonathan
and former NSA Dasuki withdrew
close to $600 million from the CBN
within a period of three to four
weeks. He said the funds were mostly
used for election purposes.

Recall that news had broke with
details of the illegal withdrawal of
N60billion from the CBN as well as
the theft of public funds from the
NNPC.

It was alleged that a senator, on
learning about the illegal
withdrawals, threatened CBN
officials that he would reveal the
payments unless they gave him
N5billion.

A source at the Presidency told
Sahara Reporters that the person in
question is Senator Bukola Saraki,
who is now Senate President.

It was revealed that as recently as
May 2015, Saraki received N250
million from CBN officials.

The cash transfer was deemed part
of the “bribe” to ensure that Saraki
keep quiet about the questionable
withdrawals ostensibly meant for
arms purchases.

The Presidency source suggested that
Saraki got wind of the illegal
transactions through a CBN staff
loyal to the ousted CBN Governor,
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.

During the period in question Saraki
had become a fierce opponents of
President Jonathan haven dumped
the PDP and with attempts made by
the regime to kick him out of the
Senate.

The source also stated that Saraki’s
blackmail of CBN officials also
included a demand that the CBN
approve Heritage Bank’s takeover of
Enterprise Bank as recently as
August 2015. Senator Saraki has
significant equity stake in Heritage
Bank.

Apparently basking in his ability to
compel the CBN to do his bidding,
Saraki urged the bank’s top officials
to remove the National Assembly
from the Treasury Single Account
policy, even after President
Muhammadu Buhari had explicitly
refused to allow that exclusion.

In an apparent attempt to force the
hand of both the CBN and President
Buhari, one of Saraki’s closest allies,
Senator Dino Melaye, raised an
alarm accusing the government of
stealing N25billion from the TSA via
a remittance fee charged by a third
party company that had been hired
by President Jonathan’s
administration.

But when a probe committee looked
into the alleged fraud, it could not
find proof of missing money.

See some details of the dirty deal below: