THE Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission has concluded plans to
commence the probe of the former
President Goodluck Jonathan with
investigations into the financial
transactions of his ministers and
aides.
The PUNCH learnt that the Chairman
of the commission, Mr. Ibrahim
Lamorde, had already directed that all
petitions against former public
officers at the federal level should be
forwarded to him to be acted upon.
Findings showed that former
ministers, special advisers, heads of
parastatals and those of other
Federal Government agencies would
be invited for interrogation by the
EFCC in few weeks from now.
Our correspondents learnt that the
anti-graft agency would focus on
those whose establishments
attracted huge allocations from the
Federal Government when Jonathan
was in power.
Such ministries and agencies, it was
learnt, included defence, petroleum
resources and power.
Three top sources in the anti-graft
agency confided in one of our
correspondents that Lamorde was
“determined to expose any corrupt
act during the administration of the
former President.”
One of the sources, who confided in
one of our correspondents, explained
that anti-graft operatives had yet to
arrest any of the former ministers,
special advisers and heads of
agencies who served under the
former President.
The source said, “I am not aware of
anybody who has been summoned or
interrogated by the commission.
Those to be interrogated would be
determined by the gravity of the
allegations against them as
contained in the petitions.
“What happened last week was that a
directive was issued to move all
petitions against public office
holders under the former President to
the office of the Chairman.
“The files will be studied and
assigned to units to handle the
investigations. It is based on the
petitions that people will be
summoned.
“Most likely next week, action would
be taken on those petitions…”
But the Head of Media and Publicity
of the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwajaren,
denied knowledge of such a directive
when one of our correspondents
contacted him on the telephone on
Monday.
“I am not aware of the directive you
are talking about. It is not to my
knowledge,” the agency’s spokesman
said.
Reacting to the development, the
Deputy National Publicity Secretary of
the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji
Abdullahi Jalo, said the party was
not afraid of a probe.
According to him, the party and
former President Goodluck Jonathan
have nothing to hide, saying all the
party is asking for is that any probe
must be within the ambit of the law.
Jalo said the PDP as a political party
discharged its duty of providing
leadership for Nigeria for 16 years
and that it did so transparently.
He said, “I am sure Nigerians still
remember that it was because of
PDP’s desire to deal with the scourge
of corruption that our government
under the leadership of President
Olusegun Obasanjo established the
EFCC and the ICPC. The records are
there.
“All we are asking for is that there
must be fairness and justice,
whatever probe they want to carry
out must have respect for the rule of
law, good conscience and the fear of
God.
“Such a probe must not be carried
out based on vendetta or simply
because somebody does not like the
name or the face of somebody.”
Jalo also advised the All
Progressives Congress-led
administration to pay more attention
to providing leadership to Nigeria,
“rather than dissipating energy in the
pursuit of trivialities.”
The Senior Special Adviser to the
President on Media and Publicity, Mr.
Femi Adesina, had in an interview
last week, said President
Muhammadu Buhari would probe
Jonathan’s government.
He had said that the present
administration would recover billions
of dollars, adding that “the world is
too small a place for anybody to hide
if you are running from justice.”
“It doesn’t mean that anybody that
has ill-gotten wealth will not
regurgitate it. They will. Remember
when he (Buhari) went to Germany
for the G7 summit, he met with
President Obama and Obama told
him to just give us information on
where the loot is hidden and we will
help you recover it and the
government has been working on
that. So, that shows that looters will
never go free,” he had said.
Operatives of the Department of State
Services had invaded the houses of
Jonathan’s National Security Adviser,
Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.) on Friday
forcing the former NSA to a house
arrest for 24 hours.
The security agency in a statement
the following day accused Dasuki of
felony, misuse of power and
possession of destructive weapons.
It said it recovered from Dasuki’s
home seven high calibre rifles (high
assault weapons), several magazines,
military related gear and 12 new
vehicles, including five bulletproof
cars.
A top officer of the DSS had
confided in one of our
correspondents that Dasuki would
face further interrogations this week.
Also, the ex-President’s Chief
Security Officer, Gordon Obua, was
being detained as part of
investigations into the security
spending at the Presidential Villa
during his time.
A lawyer to Obua has raised the
alarm about the detention of his
client.
The lawyer, Onochie Onwuegbuna,
said in a statement that Obua had
been in detention since July 16
without being told what offence he
committed.
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