General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), Nigeria’s President-elect on Sunday, April 26, 2015 assured that his administration will probe into the missing $20 billion claim by the Former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido who is currently the Emir of Kano.
Sanusi Lamido had accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had failed to remit a huge sum of $20 billion to the federation’s account. The former CBN governor first alleged it was $49 billion that was missing. Then he alleged it was $12 billion, after apologising to the NNPC for his first allegations.
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The Jonathan administration had ordered a forensic audit into the accounts of the NNPC and it was found that the $20 billion missing money claim was false that NNPC had accounted for all monies it had received on behalf of the Federal Government. The audit was carried out by globally respected audit firm, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC). The report, which President Jonathan has released to the public, April 27, 2015 says that NNPC was yet to remit $1.7 billion to the federation account.
Buhari made this promise to a delegation of party supporters and newly elected officials on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, from Adamawa State, at his campaign office in Abuja. The president elect speaking in Hausa language said:
“On the issue of corruption, I heard that some people have started returning money. I will not believe it until I see for myself,” Buhari said.
“You all remember what the Emir of Kano talked about when he was the governor of the CBN. He said $20bn not N20bn was unaccounted for; they said it was a lie. Instead of investigating it, they sacked him. And God in his infinite mercy made him the Emir of Kano. In any case, that is what he wanted. And since this was documented, our administration will take a look at it.”
Someone in Buhari’s campaign organisation needs to tell him that as a president elect, and president he has to measure his words and stick to facts. His comments on this issue indicates that either he believes the lies and propaganda of his party, the APC to be true or he his not properly informed about the issue.
