Jonathan"s administration stole $6billion, says Oshiomhole

GOVERNOR Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has alleged that a minister under the immediate past administration of President Goodluck Jonathan stole $6billion from the nation’s coffers.

Governor Oshiomhole

He made the allegation while answering questions from State House correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday.

The governor, who did not mention any name, said the revelation came to light during last week’s visit of President Buhari to the United States, with him as a member of the Presidential entourage.

Noting that even by U.S. standard, the stealing of such amount of money was “an earthquake,” he alleged that Jonathan’s administration liquidated the country.

According to him, if Nigerians were not patient people, no member of the former ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should feel safe because their collective future was destroyed under the party.

He said: “The PDP destroyed the country. From the lips of American officials; senior officials of the State Department, one minister under PDP cornered as much as $6billion. The man said even by Washington standard, that is earth-quaking.

“So, PDP is a party that presided over the liquidation of our nation, destroyed all our institutions, converted the Armed Forces commanders to use them as if they were political thugs, converted Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) to a party megaphone, destroyed the State Security Service (SSS), went after opposition as if we were rabbits to be pursued in to our holes, compromised even student unions and destroyed everything that you can think of and elevated religion to a state affair.

“Under the party, Israel became a place you visit every week. They played pastors against mallams, placed North against South, East against West just to retain power; elevate Obas and Obis with dollars and you guys were reporting dollars that were changing hands; when Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) was spending much more money than is available to the Federation Account.

“We are a very patient people. If we were not patient, anybody wearing the tag of PDP ought to feel very unsafe because you are all victims- all of us here.”

Continuing, Oshiomhole claimed that there was no law under the PDP as the party members were law to themselves, adding that even President Jonathan had no grasp of what the issues were, leaving everybody frustrated.

He added, “Mr Carson who was the Assistant Secretary of State, when we visited him in company of Senator Saraki, then as chairman of the Governors’ Forum, that was at the eve of President Obama’s first visit to Africa, and we went to complain, ‘why is Nigeria not on the list?’

“What he said for me was quite instructive compared to what he said last week. Then I was present when he said ‘you know, we who see ourselves not just as friends of Nigeria, each time we think there is light at the end of the tunnel and it is time to encourage Nigeria to build on it, you would wake up the following day under President Jonathan to find out that even the tunnel had been removed. Those were the words of Mr Carson.

“Now, last week, this same Carson chaired the President’s address at the Institute of Peace and he said “we now have a man of enormous integrity; one that has shown so much faith in the democratic process; one that refused to be frustrated even in the face of massively rigged elections. He submitted to the judicial process and even when that was compromised he never gave up.

“America has done its check and we are convinced that this President is the one that Nigeria needs at this time to regain its leadership of the African continent.

“America now has a partner worthy of relations because they believe that every dollar that America provides to support Nigeria, whether in the area of security, in the area of education, or encouraging American investors to invest in Nigeria, there is an enabling environment because what had been destroying the country is corruption.

“You have so much capital outflow; so, America is ready to stand side-by-side to support this President to achieve his core objective of fighting corruption, restoring security, creating jobs and redistributing prosperity’.

“So, if PDP doesn’t condemn it, then they are no longer PDP. Don’t forget, people deceiving people has been a way of life for 16 years.”

Jonathan"s administration stole $6billion, says Oshiomhole