Graft War: Buhari’s Secret Pact With Jonathan

  • How Ex-President Exposed Rot Under His Stewardship
  • Top Military Officers’ Accounts Frozen, Assets Under Watch

buhariFormer President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan may have given his successor, President Muhammadu Buhari a lead on how the nation’s treasury was massively looted by some of his men, including the squander of treasury votes by former National security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, which is being mistaken as arms purchase money.
nationalTRAIL gathered that, part of what President Buhari was discussing with his predecessor, during the latter’s frequent visits to the presidential villa, include how they can work together in saving Nigeria from people who seem to have hijacked the nation’s economy, and avenge themselves on those who worked against them, before, during and after the elections.
Goodluck Jonathan, apparently angered by the manner top officers of his Government who connived and collected billions of naira, only to sit back and watch the opposition defeat him so cheaply in an election he has no business losing, decided to reveal the identities of looters of the treasury and provided incriminating details of how each of them partook in the plunder of the country’s resources.
Sources in the presidency confirmed to us that,a greater part of the documents being relied upon in the investigations and prosecution of Sambo Dasuki, and others came from Goodluck Jonathan himself, while others were retrieved by a Presidential directive to the Central bank Of Nigeira, CBN, through which most of the funds were diverted, being the custodian of the country’s funds.
Former President Jonathan may have agreed to assist in identifying and providing proofs of how top Government officials, as well as PDP stalwarts aided the squander of the nation’s resources, as a pre condition for his own sins to be over looked, even as part of the synergy between him and the President may have been to work together against their common enemies.
Findings reveal that, the President and his predecessor had agreed that their common enemies include those who worked against Buhari in the build up to the elections, especially the embarrassing certificate saga and other public ridicules, on one hand, and those who betrayed Jonathan in his own election, after collecting money to prosecute his political programmes but failed.
nationalTRAIL gathered that, Jonathan seems to have realized rather belatedly that, most of his trusted aides actually worked towards his downfall, while the hundreds of billions of naira the central bank was churning out daily for his political campaigns and that of the Peoples democratic Party, PDP, were actually being diverted into private vaults of his aides and allies.
So far, President Muhammadu Buhari seems to over look the obvious indictments of former president Goodluck Jonathan, given the fact that, Sambo Dasuki could not have carried out the activities he was alleged to have embarked upon without the knowledge of or express approval of the former President, as his National Security Adviser.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has variously extricated Goodluck Jonathan from blames in the scandalous activities of his aides, ostensibly on the instructions of the Presidency, to the effect that, the former President may as well be the prosecution witness, the Government seeks to protect in the prosecution of Sambo Dasuki and his cohorts.
According to our sources, the cases against some of Jonathan’s aides are water tight, and the EFCC has at its disposal sufficient proofs, mostly provided by the former President, to secure convictions, even as people who may have been penciled down for the next round of crack down on corrupt acts are begining to panic, ahead of their formal invitations by the EFCC.
Investigations from the Presidency reveals that, the United Arab Emirates, UAE, in particular, where some of the stolen funds are stashed away, may have disclosed to President Muhammadu Buhari the quantum of lodgments and assets by Nigerian Government Officials, during the President’s recent visit to Dubai.
President Buhari, who signed a bilateral agreement with the Emirate may have discovered that, while attention was being paid to Switzerland, the United States and the United Kingdom, greater part of Nigeria’s stolen funds may have either been invested or stashed away in foreign accounts in the United arab Emirate and other middle east countries.
Already, the President has secured the commitment of the leadership of the emirate on the confiscation and possible repatriation of stolen funds hidden there, and the deportation of fugitives who may be seeking refuge in UAE, following the latest crackdown on corrupt officials by the new government in Nigeria.
Findings reveal that, a curious angle to some of the illegal assets were that, they were acquired by proxies, while some were gotten in the names of spouses or children of the actual culprits, making the processes of confiscation a little cumbersome, an international law practitioner said.
Meanwhile, investigations in dubai reveal that, in their panic, some officials, both former and serving, including state Governors were said to be desperately struggling to dispose of such properties or change their ownership or even abandon their ill gotten funds, to evade possible detection and subsequent embarrassment by President Muhammadu Buhari.
At the home front, following the recommendations and subsequent investigation of Nigerian Airforce officers, allegedly involved in the unwholesome procurement processes, their counterparts in the Nigerian Army are in confusion ahead of their own possible indictment.
Our correspondent reports that top Army Officers, one of whom has since been recalled from retirement and under investigations by the EFCC, have been running from pillar to pole in a bid to cover up their alleged involvements or at least secure soft landings

 

Sam ADEGBE and Matthew OMEJE- Abuja


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