Looted Funds: We Must not Make Excuses for the Corrupt - Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari  friday charged Nigerians to desist from shielding and supporting those facing trial for looting the public treasury.

President Buhari

Buhari spoke at the end of a four day plenary session of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) at Holy Cross Catholic Church, Gwarinpa, Abuja.

Represented by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, the President explained that the magnitude of corruption perpetuated by those facing trial remained a serious challenge to managing the nation’s natural resources.

“Our nation has a large number of extremely vulnerable and poor people. At the last count, it was over 100 million extremely poor people that is why we cannot afford governments that  are corrupt, because the resources that are meant to satisfy many are consumed by only a few.

“We must hold those who are corrupt accountable, corruption is a crime against humanity, we must not make excuses for those who are corrupt, we as a government hold ourselves accountable for anything that we do.

“We want to put a system where anyone who holds public office is held to account for whatever he does in public office so that resources of this great nation will satisfy all of us and will be used for the common good”, he said.

The Vice President told the congregation that “before the 2015 electioneering campaign, President Buhari met with Catholic bishops where he said that his duty as president was to ensure fairness among people of all religions, people different faiths and people of different ethnicity.

“To ensure safety of lives and property and also ensure that people can worship in peace. He promised that as president, he will ensure that everyone enjoy equal rights and equal protection.

“Today the President has done that, it is an important conference. The way religion and ethnicity were being used to promote discord and to advance personal goals.”

He added that “The president has lived up to his word. When we look at Boko Haram insurgency, the suicide bombing, when a bomb goes off in any of the markets, it does not ask whether you are a Christian or Muslim; all of us most condemn evil. Evil is evil.”

“This year has been declared as a year of Mercy. We are all beneficiaries of the mercy of God, we would not have been in the positions we find ourselves if not for the mercy of God. All of the great heroes we know are mere men, sinners in the hand of Mercy,” he observed.

In their communique, signed by CBCN President, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama and Secretary, Most Rev. William Avenya, the bishops tasked the Buhari administration to ensure that all culprits involved in the pilfering of the nation’s treasury were severally held accountable.

“We call on government to use appropriate legal processes to thoroughly investigate the crimes of the past, transparently prosecute accused persons, and hold the guilty accountable in accordance with the laws of the land.

“Nonetheless, legal efforts are not enough.  We enjoin all to seek positive and effective way forward through our common spiritual and religious values, namely, prayers and spiritual and moral rebirth as basis repentance, reparation and reconciliation,” they stressed.

The bishops bemoaned the growing spate of criminality in the country, adding, “We are worried by the intractable culture of conflicts and criminality in our society.

“We have a responsibility to ensure that no member of the society suffers violence, marginalisation and deprivation. This indeed is the goal of social justice,” they stated.

Looted Funds: We Must not Make Excuses for the Corrupt - Buhari

‘If armed robber gets death sentence, what of corrupt govt official ?’

Abuja – A Rivers-based lawyer, Mr Abdulkareem Dauda, has said that an amendment to the law governing corruption to impose death penalty on convicted corrupt government officials and others was justifiable and desirable.

Dauda said this in an interview with , Tuesday, in Abuja.

The legal practitioner said death sentence for those found guilty of corruption was justifiable, considering the multiplier effects of corruption, which destroyed every sector of the society.

He added that “if an armed robber who kills one or two persons or robbed at gunpoint gets a death sentence, what of a corrupt government official whose action destroys many lives?.’’

He said corruption was a more dangerous offence than armed robbery and should, therefore, attract stiffer punishment in order to deter others.

“In my opinion, corruption should attract death penalty. People who are saying that corruption should attract death penalty are justified when you look at the many consequences of corruption on the society.

“When armed robbers attack, they rob an individual or a few people of their valuables and may kill in the process and the offence attracts death sentence.

“However, corruption kills several people, destroys the economy of a nation, health and social systems and affects several people’s lives, exposing them to various kinds of diseases and even death,’’ he said.

Dauda concurred with a recent comment credited to former civilian governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, that 80 per cent of Nigeria’s problems would be solved if corruption was eliminated.

He also said that “President Muhammadu Buhari is a man of integrity and the proper person that can rescue Nigeria from the syndrome of corruption.’’

The lawyer further stated that the fight against corruption should also be extended to the judiciary and law enforcement agencies, if government must win the war.

“I strongly believe that before the anti-corruption crusade can succeed, the president has a lot to do in terms of cleansing the enforcement agencies, especially the police, EFCC, ICPC and the judiciary.

“We have seen corruption cases where suspects are charged to court but because the police may have been compromised and cannot conduct investigation properly, the judge cannot convict the accused.’’

He, therefore, suggested the setting up of special courts comprising reputable, steadfast and incorruptible judges to handle corruption cases.

‘If armed robber gets death sentence, what of corrupt govt official ?’

Silent Corrupt King: The Dirty Fraud Lifestyle Of Debt Management Office (DMO) DG

By Fejiro Oliver

If there is one man who will be cooling of his feet in jail when General Muhammadu Buhari resumes office as the President of Nigeria, then the DG of the DMO will wear the prison uniform.

The Debt Management Office (DMO) is saddled with managing the debt profile of the Federal Government and even as far as securing bond for the nation, but the Dr Abraham Nwankwo led leadership has succeeded in converting some of the bonds taken to personal cash while wasting our collective wealth by diverting into private pockets.

Investigations carried out revealed that Nwankwo lives a very discreet life, so as to cover the wild alleged corrupt life his currently lives. The agency who has the Vice President Namadi Sambo as its Board Chairman has raised a bond of $2 billion but ironically spent over $200 million or 10% of the bond secured to pay faceless consultants and to secure it, when they ought to have these people working inside the office.

We gathered that whenever they go to the International Capital Market (ICM) to raise bond, they pay a lawyer outside the agency, a whooping sum of $700,000 as consultant fees for issuance. This money according to our sources within DMO actually goes to the DG’s purse. Ironically, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala who supervises the agency approves money for the ICM without checking to see if the money approved is actually used for its purposes, such as the inflation of legal and consultancy fees.

THE DG PROMISCOUS LIFE

Nwankwo is not just an alleged fraudster within the organization, but also a philanderer who sleeps with the staff and rewards them with the goodies of life, all from the proceeds of the illegal wealth gotten from the country’s coffer. The man who was appointed the DMO DG in 2007 currently has a lover in the person of Patience Uboma from Cross River State, a Level 10 officer in the agency. As a reward for her expertise on bed, she was posted to the department of Sovereign Debt Unit (SBU), a money making department that handles the fuel subsidy fund.

The lady who was known to be very poor and even ‘begs’ for lunch from her colleagues has suddenly made it big as a bed warmer to the DG. She has currently bought one of the latest brand new leaf green Rav 4 Jeep worth N4 million last year.

MORE AND MORE FRAUD

The DG who lives at Maitama we also reliably found out donates millions in church while he has a transport company which we are currently tracing to get the name. The burial of the Father In-Law turend to a conduit pipe to siphon money as a budget of N18 million was approved for adverts on AIT and few newspapers to announce the burial programme. The burial which comes up on the 16^th of April is mandatory for all staff as the emperor will deal with anyone who does not attend, while sacking some.

Sources within the agency revealed to us that Nwankwo salary is not above N600,000 as a DG  while Directos earn N450,000, but he has properties worth multi million Naira. One of such is a mansion built in his Obowo village of Imo State which allegedly cost over N70 million, with a brand new Lincoln Navigator Jeep worth over N10 million.

Against FG policy, he has various official cars like Pajero Crusier, two extra jeep and the number series of the Peugeot brand all fueled by government. He also has his 3 children, 2 girls and a boy all schooling in the US.

A particular staff, Mantakari Loveth made redundant by the DG and was sacked dragged the agency to the Industrial High Court, court and corrupt as ever; the DMO paid a lawyer outside the eye popping sum of N6 million to handle the case which is yet to begin. Mantakari is now living in the USA.

We can also reliably report that there are no staff union in the agency, as the dictatorial DG has no tolerance for such. One of the top management staff noted that it will take years for the new Board of Directors Chairman, Yemi Osibanjo who is the Vice President to find out about the corruption going since, as it has become a norm within the system, with secrecy as its watchword.

Calls put across to Mr Abraham Nwankwo were not answered neither message replied.

*** To be continued

 

Silent Corrupt King: The Dirty Fraud Lifestyle Of Debt Management Office (DMO) DG

“Nigerians are corrupt”- says President Mugabe

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, has taken a swipe on Nigeria, labeling the country and her citizens as corrupt. He made the remark during his 90th birthday luncheon hosted by the service chiefs and the public commission.

President Robert Mugabe

Mugabe said Zimbabweans are now almost behaving like Nigerians who have to be corruptly paid for every service.

“Are we now like Nigeria where you have to reach your pocket to get anything done,” he said. “You see we used to go to Nigeria and every time we went there we had to carry extra cash in our pockets to corruptly pay for everything.

You get into a plane in Nigeria and you sit there and the crew keeps dilly dulling without taking off as they wait for you to pay them to fly the plane,” said the president followed by a huge laugh from the delegates attending his birthday bash. The current corruption rankings in the world rank Zimbabwe’s corruption a lot worse than Nigeria.

Nigeria is ranked 163 worst corrupt country in the world while Zimbabwe is an embarrassing 170 third from the bottom.

The report was carried by Bulawayo24 News, based in Zimbabwe. (0)

“Nigerians are corrupt”- says President Mugabe