Heavy Knocks for Buhari’s anti-corruption war

As President Muhammadu Buhari’s fight against corruption continues, anti-graft agencies struggle to convince Nigerians that it is not selective, GBENRO ADEOYE writes

President Buhari

Many Nigerians have come to the realisation that corruption is a major challenge standing between the country and a good life for the citizens, hence their support for President Muhammadu Buhari, who many have dubbed as the “new sheriff in town”.

The administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan was largely derided by the public for its perceived failure in fighting corruption. The former President’s body language towards graft was often described in the media as permissive. The posture and antecedents of Buhari, a former military head of state, gave Nigerian masses the picture of a new sheriff coming on board to clean up the mess of past administrations.

His inaugural speech, in which he stated that he belonged to “everybody” and to “nobody” also endeared the President to some Nigerians, who were initially unsure of what to make of a septuagenarian president with dictatorial tendencies.

One thing is sure though, if the work of anti-graft agencies in Nigeria is in tandem with the President’s body language, then it can be said that Buhari’s body speaks louder than that of his predecessor, as anti-graft agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, have suddenly been spurred into action.

However, about five months into Buhari’s government, some analysts have already concluded that his body seems to be speaking a language different from that of his utterances.

While Buhari’s utterances avow that there would be no sacred cow in his war against corruption, the country’s anti-graft agencies have been perceived to be selective.

EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde

One of such persons is the Executive Chairman of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, Mr. Debo Adeniran, whose organisation has petitioned the EFCC, ICPC, the President and Senate President alleging corruption and financial misappropriation against former Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, and a former Ogun State Commissioner for Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, both of who made Buhari’s list of ministerial nominees.

Adeniran told our correspondent that he had reasons to believe that while the President’s anti-corruption war has been going after some people, Buhari has been protecting persons like Fashola and Adeosun from the arms of the law.

A former Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi; and a former Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, also made Buhari’s ministerial nominees’ list in spite of several petitions written to various anti-graft agencies against them.

Meanwhile, some others including Senate President Bukola Saraki; his wife, Toyin; a former Kebbi State Governor, Saidu Dakingari; his wife, Zainab; a former Akwa Ibom State Governor, Senator Godswill Akpabio; a former Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, have all been questioned by anti-corruption agencies.

“We have started writing petitions against Fashola to the EFCC and the ICPC since 2010,” Adeniran said.

“We have written about six or seven petitions and each time we wrote to the EFCC, we also wrote to the ICPC because the allegations concern both agencies. Recently, we sent a summary of our petitions to these agencies to the President for him to know what had been going on, so that he would be able to instruct the agencies to work on them. But he chose to nominate them as ministers.

“So till now, we believe that the President is interfering with the process of investigating Fashola and Adeosun, his nominee from Ogun State, who has a lot of corruption baggage hanging on her neck from her days as the Commissioner for Finance in the state. Buhari didn’t seem to have given credence to any of the allegations when he was nominating them.”

CACOL’s allegations against Fashola and Adeosun include corruption, misappropriation of public funds and contract inflation.

Adeniran has however threatened to sue the anti-graft agencies for their failure to investigate the duo based on the petitions against them.

In the same vein, a pressure group in Rivers State, The Integrity Group, wrote to a petition to the President, accusing Amaechi of N70bn fraud.

The group accused Amaechi and other functionaries of his administration of ‘’corruption, criminal breach of trust, unlawful enrichment and conversion of over N70bn state resources.”

Among other allegations, the former Governor was accused of fraudulent sale of Rivers State power assets and conversion of proceeds amounting to N60.48bn and unlawful enrichment of Messrs Collect Solutions (Nig.) Limited with public funds to the tune of N1.56bn.

Also, a Justice George Omereji-led Judicial Commission of Inquiry, which was recently set up by the Rivers State Government to look into the sale of valued assets belonging to the state, found Amaechi and some others responsible for misappropriating state funds to the tune of N97bn.

But there are no indications that Amaechi has been invited for questioning by the any of the anti-corruption agencies.

On September 29, 2014, a group, Save Ekiti Coalition, alleged that Fayemi misappropriated N20bbn as Ekiti State Governor in a petition it sent to the EFCC and the ICPC.

The petition, which was signed by the group’s secretary, Mr. Oke Ayodele, called for Fayemi’s investigation and prosecution, but there has been no record that the former governor has been called for questioning by any of the agencies.

Fashola, Amaechi, and Fayemi all contributed in various ways to Buhari’s success at the poll and experts have described their ministerial nominations and perceived exclusion from the probe list of anti-graft agencies as the reward for their labour.

The former governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, has been questioned by the EFCC over financial offences committed while in office between 2007 and 2011. But since Sylva’s defection from the PDP to the APC, the anti-graft agency seems to have slowed down its pace in prosecuting the former governor, allegedly because of his political strength in the party.

To reward Sylva for his loyalty to the APC, he emerged as the party’s governorship candidate in Bayelsa State.

A similar case to Sylva’s is that of former Kogi State Governor, Abubakar Audu, who also recently emerged as the APC governorship candidate in the state.

Audu is facing a 32-count charge which includes stealing, criminal breach of trust and misappropriation of public funds to the tune of about N11bn, but he was his party’s preferred candidate in spite of its anti-corruption war.

A lawyer and social commentator, Mr. Liborous Oshoma, described the situation as wrong, saying that the President has been employing double standard in his fight against corruption.

He said that anti-graft agencies under Buhari’s government have only been seen to acting on petitions against his political opponents and the like.

He said, “Everyone with allegations should be invited for questioning and those who are bringing the allegations should come to substantiate their petitions and if they are weighty, they should be taken before the appropriate authorities.

“Don’t act like some persons are the only people who are corrupt while the others are not. What that tells some of us is that we are not serious about fighting corruption.”

Meanwhile, the EFCC has acted on petitions filed by a lawyer, Mr. Leo Ekpenyong, against Akpabio, a prominent member of the Peoples Democratic Party, by inviting him for interrogation.

In the petition titled, ‘Petition against former Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State for gross and uncommon abuse of public trust’, Ekpenyoung accused Akpabio of diverting taxpayers’ money for personal use.

Before Akpabio’s invitation, operatives of the Department of State Services had in September 2015 searched the Akwa Ibom State House, in a move allegedly aimed at getting implicating evidence to link Akpabio to illegality.

Saraki is currently facing a 13-count charge of corruption and false declaration of asset at the Code of Conduct Tribunal in Abuja.

Although, he is a member of the APC following his defection from the PDP, his prosecution has largely been seen by the public as a witch-hunt for going against the dictates of his party to emerge as Senate President.

Recently, Dakingari, a PDP member, was arrested by the EFCC over allegations of misappropriating N3.8bn public fund. His wife, Zainab, was also accused of laundering N2bn for her husband.

However, the PDP through its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, accused Buhari of making the corruption war selective, saying it was targeted at members of his party.

But while Adeniran was in support of the investigation of the likes of Saraki and Dakingari for corruption, he said that CACOL was against the selective anti-corruption war, which seems to be overlooking some other people accused of graft.

He said, “All along, we have been expecting that the President would act beyond rhetoric on some of the petitions that have been pending with the anti-corruption agencies.”

Adeniran said his organisation had sent not less than six petitions each to the EFCC and the ICPC without concrete outcome.

He said, “High ranking Lagos State officials were questioned and interrogated by the EFCC around 2012. The agency has said that it has a discreet report but this has not been made available to us.

“We have demanding that the agency should let the world know the outcome of its investigation, even if it is that Fashola is not guilty. We should know why the agency thinks that he is not guilty. All of the projects Fashola did were at very high costs that are unrealistic anywhere in the world.”

On Adeosun, Adeniran said CACOL had also written to the EFCC and the ICPC to draw their attention to the alleged inflation of the costs of purchasing some Armoured Personnel Carriers bought in Ogun State while she Commissioner for Finance.

He therefore described the alleged selective probe by the current administration as bad for the country’s development.

“We are dissatisfied with the way the anti-corruption war is being fought and we are afraid that we may not achieve anything better than what we had before Buhari assumed office.

“Most of the people he is bringing to work with him are noisemakers who execute more projects in the media than they do in reality.”

Oshoma also expressed concern about the President’s anti-corruption war, saying his hope that the war would be better in Buhari’s had been dashed.

“We had expected a holistic approach but what we see is a far cry from that, so I’m not impressed with all of these gimmicks to fight corruption,” he said.

“When Saraki was charged before the code of conduct tribunal, I was one of those who said that he should step aside and answer to those charges and clear his name. In the same vein, I maintain that if a former governor, senator or any other person has a petition against him, irrespective of how spurious or irrelevant it is, it should be looked into and a conclusion must be reached.

“The world has moved beyond the argument that people can hold political positions once they have not been convicted. Where we are now is that if there are allegations hanging on your character, you should go and clear yourself before you hold any political office.”

Heavy Knocks for Buhari’s anti-corruption war

Buhari’s anti-corruption war: Business slows down for charter airlines

Charter airlines operating in Nigeria have been losing at least half a billion naira monthly since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power and started his anti-corruption crusade, findings by Saturday PUNCH have shown.

General Buhari

In the last four months, investigation reveal that 10 charter airlines have lost a combined revenue of $10.395m (N2.048bn).

Subsequently, some of the charter airlines, which used to enjoy the robust patronage of serving and non-serving top government officials, cronies and contractors, are now at the verge of closing shops following a sharp drop in business turnovers.

Sources in the charter airline sub-sector of the country’s aviation industry disclosed to our correspondent under the condition of anonymity that Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign had made most of their clients to boycott flying charter jets.

It was further learnt that serving governors, politicians, immediate past ministers, ex-presidential advisers, top government contractors including subsidy scheme beneficiaries and top civil servants, who used to charter airlines, had all stopped flying private jets.

Findings also revealed that associates of these serving and non-serving government officials, and their associates and family members, both close and distant, had also stopped renting private jets, a usual practice in the past.

A director in one of the aviation agencies who is close to charter jet operators at the Lagos airport, said, “Immediately Buhari took over, charter jet business started witnessing a gradual decline. But it became very worse when Buhari started the anti-corruption crusade.

“The fear of probe by the new government made most of our clients to run away. You know most of our clients are serving and non-serving top government officials, top government contractors and subsidy scheme beneficiaries.”

The CEO of one of the top local charter companies, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, also confirmed the development.

He said most operators were already returning some of the planes they leased from foreign leasing companies following the development.

He said, “The charter businesses have all been affected so badly, I used to do an average of 50 hours in a month. And this is the average for most of us the main operators. Now, I hardly do 10 hours in a month, it’s that bad.”

“I do about 60 hours per month at my peak, and about 43 hours per month at periods before the emergence of the new administration,” he added.

According to him, the condition has made some operators to return planes leased from foreign leasing companies in South Africa and United States back to them.

“Many of us (charter airlines) could not afford lease rentals (fees operators pay on planes to their owners) anymore because businesses are down, I mean virtually down completely.

“The law allows us to lease aircraft that because Nigeria has domesticated the Cape Town Convention. That was even the reason they released the planes to Nigerian operators in the first place.”

Following the downturn in business, he said each operator had returned between one and four aircraft to their owners overseas depending on the number of planes they leased from them.

Findings by our correspondent show that there are about 10 licensed charter airlines operators in Nigeria.

These are Austria-based Vistajets, United Kingdom-based Hanger 8 Aviation, Top Brass Aviation, Skyjet Airlines, Jed Air, Overland Airways, SkyPower Express, Arik Air, King Air and Associated Airlines.

However, there are still a number of charter flights operated by some helicopter companies which also have one or two private jets for charter in their fleet.

Also, there are still a number of companies which do charter under the licences of some of the licensed charter operators.

Further findings from government agencies and chief executive officers of some charter airlines showed that each of the main operators made an average of 50 hours per month before Buhari took over and began the anti-corruption crusade.

Specifically, charter airline operations ranged from 35 to 65 hours per month before the advent of the Buhari administration. This may come from an average of about three or four flights per week with each flight lasting for about two to three hours on the average.

According to the CEOs, the charter airlines charge between $5,000 and $8,000 per hour for the flights or services.

However, businesses have become so bad that most operators do between five hours and 20 hours a month, according to some CEOs who spoke to our correspondent under the condition of anonymity.

Using an average fee of $6,500 per hour and an average of 50 hours per month for each operator, It means that the 10 licensed charter airlines were generating a revenue of $3.25m (N640.25m) every month before the emergence of Buhari.

However, with the downturn in business, it means using an average of 10 hours per month for each operator, the 10 licensed operators are now making approximately $650,000 (N128.05m) every month.

This means that the charter airlines are losing about $2.6m (N512m) in revenue every month with the sharp decline in their business.

This means that between May and September, charter airlines have lost about $10.4m (N2.048bn) in revenue.

The development has made some charter airlines to begin sacking some of their employees.

It was authoritatively gathered that Vistajets had sacked some of its employees in the aftermath of the sharp drop in its business.

Early last year, it was reported that the immediate past Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Alison Madueke, allegedly flew Vistajets for several months and accumulated huge sums of bills that could almost reach half of the amount a private jet is sold.

Vistajets, which parades some of the best upscale and almost brand new Bombardier jets in its fleets, enjoys perhaps the best patronage prior to the downturn in the charter business market.

The Austria-based charter airlines, which used to have about five private jets deployed in Nigeria during the peak of business, had reduced it to just two with only one being in active service, according to a government official close to the company.

The official said a number of workers were laid off after the company redeployed some of its aircraft to other African countries.

The Vistajets’ representative in Nigeria, Mr. Kola Aluko, could not be reached for comments. Calls and text messages sent to his telephone line did not go through.

The CEO of Skypower Express, one of the charter airlines, Capt. Joji Muhammed, said the downturn in the charter business market could be linked to several factors including the downturn in the economy and the fact that elections were over.

Joji, who confirmed that some operators had returned their aircraft overseas, said when planes were no more in use due to low business, it was normal that they would be taken away.

An aviation industry analyst and Chief Executive Officer, Group Captain John Ojikutu (retd), said Buhari needed to investigate those who had used government funds and corrupt money to fly or buy private jets.

He said it was obvious that most of the people who used to fly private jets got the money through corrupt means.

“All the government contractors, ex-government officials must all be investigated; they have stopped because a new government that is interested in seeing how people spend money is in power.”

Industry watcher and CEO, Finum Aviation, an aviation consultancy firm, Mr. Sheri Kyari, said, “People who used to display wealth are no more doing so because they don’t know what will happen next. This is why the charter business market is down. Except there is an economic boom, the charter market may not recover too soon.”

Saturday PUNCH also learnt that some top government officials and beneficiaries of oil subsidy scheme who bought private jets were selling them for fear of being probed.

Some who did not sell them were said to be hiding them in foreign countries. It was gathered that those who leased private jets directly from foreign companies for their private flying had returned them.

An aviation industry analyst and member of the Aviation Round Table, an industry pressure group, Mr. Olumide Ohunayo, said the growth and boom the charter airline sub-sector experienced before the emergence of Buhari was funded by stolen and excess government funds.

He said, “Things have not been done properly in the charter airline sector. For instance, a lot of the operators are not paying taxes. We have some people also offering illegal charter services. You saw how the NCAA recently impounded two foreign planes for doing illegal charter services in Nigeria. Now, a new sheriff is in town and the fear of the new sheriff has slowed down activities in that sector.

“We have come to the time when everybody has to account for their actions and inactions. Before now, you see ministers and top government officials flying private jets and forcing government agencies to foot the bill. That is no longer happening now because all the top civil servants are afraid of Buhari’s probe.”

Ohunayo further explained that. “We used to see a situation where some top government people, their family members or cronies will charter private jet to Dubai or South Africa on a Friday to relax and come back on a Monday. That can no longer happen again so the sector must experience the lull. People must account for things and the fear of probe is making many people to run away now even though they still have the money.”

Industry watcher and former Assistant General Secretary, Airlines Operators of Nigeria, Alhaji Tukur Muhammed, said many top Nigerians with links in government who used to fly private jets now fly business class in commercial planes. He noted that the development had made commercial airlines to be making good revenue in their premium classes.

Muhammed said, “People are being forced to change their lifestyles. Come and see the business class cabin of First Nation, Aero contractor and other airlines on the Lagos-Abuja route now, you see the big names that used to fly charter jets there. The fear of Buhari has made everyone to change their lifestyles. I think it is good for the country. However, people who stole money must account for it.

“For the charter airline market, we will start facing the reality now. Private jet is not for everyone. It is for those few who can afford it, and not those who stole government money.”

Buhari’s anti-corruption war: Business slows down for charter airlines

Come up with ideas to deal with corruption - Odigie urges Judiciary

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has enjoined the judiciary to come up with innovative ways of dealing with established cases of corruption.

APC National Chairman, Odigie Oyegun

Odigie-Oyegun said this at the post-investiture reception for Dr. Muiz Banire as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, in Abuja on Monday.

He explained that the kind of mind-blowing cases of corruption in Nigeria would require a system which would deal with such cases expeditiously in order to prevent people who had stolen so much from the system from using part of their loot to escape justice.

The party chairman said, “There must be easier way; there must be either decisive justice, real justice without defeating the purpose of justice and without defeating the means to reform our society.

“Reform we must; and that reform must permeates all sectors of the economy and the polity.

“The matter today is corruption and if we do not have the way that corruption cases can be treated or heard and disposed off quickly and particularly in circumstance where today when we talk of corruption, we are not talking of a few millions of naira, we are not talking of five per cent; we are talking about something approaching trillions.

“These people can keep us in court all year long and for many years. In cases that are very obvious, very clear that if you total everything it would be what one would have earned in all his life time and if he comes ten times over to the world there is no way he could have accumulated the kind of wealth he has, particularly for people in public service.

“What is serious is that in a period like this when we want to change the society and change the society quickly, it is important that it is in tandem with the Judicial system.”

Come up with ideas to deal with corruption - Odigie urges Judiciary