Posted on: 11:52 Mon, 14 Mar 2016



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.”