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Tag: treasury looters

  • APC to Nigerians: reject treasury looters

    Nigerians got yesterday a plea from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)  – come out tomorrow and cast their ballot.

    It described voting for its candidate President Muhammadu Buhari as a move forward to the next level and doing otherwise as returning the nation to the era of treasury looting.

    In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, the party said that Nigerians should use their votes to stop treasury looters from hijacking presidential power by all means.

    The statement reads: “As we head towards Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections, our great party, the APC, calls on Nigerians to turn out en masse and use their votes to send a clear message to treasury looters who want to hijack presidential power by hook or crook.

    “The time has come for Nigerians to again reject the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and their discredited candidates. Never again should Nigerians allow them return to power to continue embezzling our resources.

    “We must all remember how, under the PDP’s 16-year watch, our commonwealth was wantonly privatised and used to fund their political activities. The world has been daily assailed by outcomes of investigations showing the humongous funds that past PDP administrations stole and laundered for private use.

    “In the most inhumane manner, counter-insurgency votes were channeled to private pockets while terrorists ravaged communities, the citizenry and seized our territory.

    “Our national economy was pushed to the verge of recession and cleverly papered over with voodoo economics employed by the PDP administrations.

    “Confronted with the realities of a poorly-managed national economy and neglected infrastructure, the APC took over the administration of the country when Nigeria began slipping into recession. Commendably, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration worked prudently to pull out the country from recession.

    “Today, the APC administration has degraded Boko Haram that had under the previous administration annexed and hoisted their flags in at least 28 local government areas in the northeast zone. We have also been surefooted in the fight against corruption, rebuilding our dilapidated infrastructure and diversifying our economy.

    “While the choices that have presented themselves before us in these elections are many; the APC offers the best credible alternative in terms of an incorruptible presidential candidate that can sustain the march towards a national rebirth.

    “We, therefore, call on our country men and women to choose between moving forward to the Next Level of economic growth, shared prosperity, infrastructural development, and secure future, which the APC and President Buhari offer; or going backward to the era of looting and plundering of our commonwealth by a few elites, which the PDP and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar offer.”

    He also urged Nigerians, especially party members and supporters to pray for peace and the success of the elections and cautioned all Nigerians and APC members not to be involved in any act of electoral malpractice and irregularities.

    Issa-Onilu: “We should stay safe and work collectively to ensure that the general elections are free, fair, transparent and credible. Security agencies have been given the marching order to bring the full weight of our laws to bear on anyone that perpetrate violence or electoral offence no matter how highly placed.

    “We encourage our members to come out to vote and protect the ballots. Our great party has enough support nationwide to win with a landslide. We must now work to ensure that the election is decided by one man one vote, which guarantees our victory.

    “We caution Nigerians and all involved in the electoral process not to be influenced by huge money the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is moving around to buy votes and compromise the system.

    “Our future should not be mortgaged to the leaders of PDP who are using our commonwealth they stole over 16 years to seek a return to power.”

     

  • ‘Nigerians have a right to know treasury looters’

    Nigerians have a right to know those who looted the treasury, the Federal Government said yesterday.

    It added that no amount of pressure would distract the government from releasing more looters name.

    “Nigerians must know those who have wrecked the country and mortgaged the future of their children,” the government said in a statement by Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

    The statement said: ‘’We are not underestimating the desperation of the looters, but we

    wish to assure Nigerians who are justifiably outraged at the mindless plundering of the nation’s wealth also of our determination not to back down.”

    According to the government no amount of pressure, including the antics of hack writers and threats of litigation, will prevent it from releasing more names of looters of the treasury.

    Mohammed said following the release of the two lists of suspected looters, there have been overt and covert attempts to intimidate and blackmail the government into discontinuing the release of more names.

    ‘’Hack writers have inundated the social and traditional media with articles casting aspersion on the lists, while some newspapers have even resorted to writing editorials against the Federal Government over the release of the lists. Most of the write-ups have accused the government of politicising the anti-graft war by releasing the lists. We strongly disagree with them.

    ‘’We do not have the power to try or convict anyone. That is the exclusive preserve of the courts. But we have the power to let Nigerians know those who turned the public treasury into their personal piggy banks, on the basis of very concrete evidence, and that is what we are doing,’’ he said.

    Mohammed said the government had always known that corruption would fight back, “fast and furious”, hence it is not surprised at the hiring of hack writers to attack the very idea of naming and shaming the looters, or the hysterical threats of litigation

    ‘’All the fuss about politicising the anti-corruption fight is aimed at preventing the government from releasing more looters’ names and at the same time muddling the waters. But 1,000 negative write-ups or editorials will not deter us from releasing the third and subsequent lists. For those who have chosen to give succour to looters, we wish them the best of luck with their new pastime,’’ he said.

    The minister said the pressure being mounted on the government over its decision to expose looters was not unexpected, adding: ‘’We know where the pressure is coming from. However, the die is cast. We will not stop until we have released the names of all those who have looted our commonwealth. Those who have not looted our treasury have nothing to be afraid of.”

    He challenged anyone who felt that he or she had been wrongly accused to “seek redress in court, rather than engaging in exhibitionist sophistry.”

    The minister also reminded Nigerians that it was the PDP that challenged the government into releasing the looters list, “hence the argument that the list only contained the names of PDP members falls short without proper contextualisation.”

  • Government treasury looters are mad – Shodeninde

    The General Overseer of The Saints Gospel Church of Christ, aka Hand of Fire, Pastor Jacob Shodeinde, has said people who loot government treasury are mad people. Shodeinde said this at the church’s on-going 14-day programme of December Feast of Jesus Passover celebration.

    He warned anybody who claims to be worshipping God to repent from all their sins, because Jesus Christ is coming soon to judge both the just and unjust. He advised worshippers to serve God in reality in order to make heaven and also enjoy the promise of God which He promised in the book of Leviticus 26:1-13

    A lot of testimonies were shared at the programme.

     

  • Critics of anti-corruption war are treasury looters

    Critics of anti-corruption war are treasury looters

    I commend those behind the formation of the Anti-Corruption Situation Room (ACSR). I understand they include civil society organisations, media groups and government agencies.

    The essence, I am told, is not just to promote transparency and accountability in government but also to ensure that the people take ownership of the fight against corruption.

    For us in government, this is music to our ears. Music to our ears because we have been saying that the fight against corruption is not Buhari’s fight, neither is it APC’s fight.

    It is Nigeria’s fight. This means all Nigerians must take possession of this war if we are to win it. The courageous and patriotic minds behind the Anti-Corruption Situation Room have taken the first critical step to ensure that Nigerians buy into this war.

    I thank the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) and its partners for coming up with the ACSR. I appeal to more civil society organizations to join this initiative. Unless there is a collaboration that involves the government, the media, CSOs and others, this fight will be tougher than it should be.

    Mr. Olanrewju Suraju, Chairman of HEDA Resource Centre, puts it most succinctly when he said, and I quote: “The central thrust is to build synergy between anti-corruption CSOs, the labor movement and law enforcement agencies, the parliament and the judiciary as a means of improving and broadening the anti-corruption agenda as well as creating an accountability loop and feedback mechanism between anti-corruption agencies, the civil society organizations and the citizens”.

    The ACSR could not have come at a better time. The Buhari Administration’s fight against corruption is gaining momentum, and the government is winning the war. But there is a challenge: there seems to be a feeling of numbness among the citizens about the conduct of those whose actions brought us here, those who looted the national treasury dry.

    Suddenly, these same people are engaging in revisionist history and blaming everyone but themselves for the mess their actions put the country into.

    Those who turned our treasury to their piggy bank are once again presenting themselves as the saviours of the nation. They say the best time for Nigeria was when the proceeds of their corruption subsidized many and gave the illusion of economic boom.

    They are so emboldened as to say Nigerians are earnestly yearning for them. No contrition. No apologies. No shame. Just sheer bravado. Unbridled arrogance. Revisionism.

    The civil society, the media and indeed all Nigerians owe it a duty not to allow Nigerians to forget, to say ‘Never Again’ to those who view Nigeria as nothing but a cash cow to be milked to death.

    How can we ever forget? The 2.1 billion dollars meant to buy weapons for the Nigerian military to fight Boko Haram was turned into a slush fund by a few, causing the war to fester and hundreds of troops to die. How can we ever forget that we spent billions of dollars on power only to have just 2,690 megawatts, which was what we inherited when we assumed office 29 May 2015?

    Why is it that despite the billions of naira supposedly spent on roads by successive administrations, what we inherited are death traps. Why did we inherit an economy in dire straits? Nigeria sold oil at over 100 dollars per barrel for years, but the proceeds were either looted or frittered away.

    Yet, this Administration has decided to take the bull by the horns, rather than sit back and lament. That is why we are fighting corruption headlong. It is the toughest of the three cardinal programmes of this administration, but we are determined to win the fight, and we are winning, even when corruption is fighting back fast and furious.

    Because we are tackling corruption, we have succeeded in raising power generation from 2,690 to an all-time high of 7,001MW. Because we are tackling corruption, we are saving 25 billion Naira monthly by cutting unnecessary allowances of officials.

    Because we are tackling corruption, we have added 500 million dollars to our Sovereign Wealth Fund that stagnated at the 1-billion-dollar that was used to set it up.

    We have raised our foreign reserves from 23 billion dollars to 38 billion dollars. We have stopped the payment of phantom subsidy of between 800 billion and 1.3 trillion Naira.

    We recovered at least 43 million dollars and 56 houses from just one official of the immediate past administration. We have recovered 2.9 billion dollars from looters so far. Our Whistle-blower policy has led to the recovery of 151 million dollars and N8 billion in looted funds from just three sources.

    Our sincere and full implementation of the Treasury Single Account, or TSA, has yielded 3 trillion naira, almost half of the estimated revenue in the 2018 budget. With the elimination of thousands of ghost workers, we have saved 120 billion naira.

    We have eliminated the 108 billion naira in maintenance fees payable to banks, pre-TSA.

    We can go on and on, reeling out the successes from our fight against corruption.

    It is noteworthy that we have achieved all these and more without having all the stakeholders fully on board in the fight against corruption. Imagine how far we would have gone if all hands have been on deck.

    That is why we are delighted at the launch of the Anti-Corruption Situation Room, which we believe will definitely ensure that more and more Nigerians buy into this war.

    Once Nigerians take possession of the war, there will be no more hiding place for the corrupt. Those accusing the administration of engaging in a selective anti-corruption fight will be exposed for who they are: apologists for treasury looters!

    I congratulate the various groups that have come together to form the ACSR. It is our fervent hope that this will be a game changer in the efforts to ensure that Nigerians take possession of the war against corruption, thus galvanizing the anti-corruption war.

    • Excerpts from speech by Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed at the launch of the Anti-Corruption Situation Room (ACSR)

     

  • Government treasury looters are mad – Pastor Shodeninde

    The General Overseer of The Saints Gospel Church of Christ, aka Hand of Fire, Pastor Jacob Shodeinde, has said people who loot government treasury are mad people. Shodeinde said this at the church’s on-going 14-day programme of December Feast of Jesus Passover celebration.

    He warned anybody who claims to be worshipping God to repent from all their sins, because Jesus Christ is coming soon to judge both the just and unjust. He advised worshippers to serve God in reality in order to make heaven and also enjoy the promise of God which He promised in the book of Leviticus 26:1-13

    A lot of testimonies were shared at the programme.

     

  • Minister urges CSOs, media to remind Nigerians of treasury looters

    Minister urges CSOs, media to remind Nigerians of treasury looters

    •Anti-Corruption Situation Room (ACSR) launched in Abuja

    THE Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and media practitioners have been urged to ensure that the citizenry do not forget the evil committed by those who looted the country’s treasury.

    Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed threw the challenge at the launch of the Anti-Corruption Situation Room (ACSR), which includes civil society organisations, media groups, government agencies and other stakeholders in Abuja yesterday.

    The minister asked the civil society to work with the media and other stakeholders to ensure that Nigerians never forget, for one moment, the damage done to the country by treasury looters.

    He said: “Those who turned our treasury to their piggy bank are once again presenting themselves as the saviours of the nation. They say the best time for Nigeria was when the proceeds of their corruption subsidised many and gave the illusion of economic boom. They are so emboldened as to say Nigerians are earnestly yearning for them. No contrition, no apologies and no shame. Just sheer bravado, unbridled arrogance and revisionism.

    “The civil society, the media and indeed all stakeholders owe it a duty not to allow Nigerians to forget, to say ‘Never Again’ to those who view Nigeria as nothing but a cash cow to be milked to death.”

    Mohammed said the formation of the ACSR could not have come at a better time, as the Buhari Administration’s fight against corruption is gaining momentum, “and the government is winning the war”.

    He said: “But there is a challenge: There seems to be a feeling of numbness among the citizens about the conduct of those whose actions brought us here, those who looted the national treasury dry. Suddenly, these same people are engaging in revisionist history and blaming everyone but themselves for the mess their actions put the country into.”

    Reeling out the cost of corruption to the nation, the minister listed the conversion to a slush fund of the 2.1 billion dollars meant to buy weapons for the Nigerian military to fight Boko Haram; the fact that the country could only generate 2,690 megawatts as at 29 May 2015 despite the billions of dollars spent on power and the failure of past governments to save for the rainy day, even when oil was selling above $100 a barrel for many years.

    He listed some of the gains of the anti-corruption fight as raising the country’s foreign reserves from $23 billion to $38 billion; stoppage of the payment of phantom subsidy of between N800 billion and N1.3 trillion; and the recovery of at least $43 million and 56 houses from just one official of the immediate past administration.

    Other gains of the fight against corruption, according to Mohammed, include the recovery of $2.9 billion from looters so far; the Whistle-blower policy which has led to the recovery of $151 million and N8 billion in looted funds from just three sources; the elimination of thousands of ghost workers, which saved the nation N120 billion and the elimination of the N108 billion in maintenance fees payable to banks pre-TSA.

    He hailed those behind the formation of the ACSR, a platform to build synergy among anti-corruption CSOs, the labour movement, the law enforcement agencies, the Parliament and the judiciary, as well as to ensure that Nigerians take ownership of the fight against corruption.

     

     

  • CSOs to FG: Publish names of treasury looters, recovered monies

    CSOs to FG: Publish names of treasury looters, recovered monies

    A coalition of civil society groups under the auspices of the Say No Campaign has asked the Federal government to make public the names of Nigerians found to have looted the public treasury and also make public the actual amount of money so far recovered as it will help the fight against corruption in the country.

    One of the congeners of the Coalition, Ezenwa Nwagwu, said a the 2017 world anti corruption day celebration in Abuja that the government owes it a duty to inform Nigerians on the progress so far made in the fight against corruption, adding that when the government says it is fighting corruption, it is not doing anybody any favour because it is part of its constitutional duties.

    He said the group was out to demystify the fact that the fight against corruption was one man’s fight, adding that “it is easy in Nigeria to build a personality cult around the anti-corruption fight; it is easy to make the anti-corruption fight a cliché. So you hear the government saying every time that it wants to fight corruption but the truth of the matter is that it is in the Constitution that it is the role of the government to abolish it.

    “So, when the government says it is fighting corruption, it is not doing anybody a favour, the consequence of corruption is upon us, its effect is upon us. When you hear that billions of naira is stolen, it means there are no drugs in the hospital, it means that citizens cannot have jobs; they will sell recharge cards.

    “It means that our industries will not work and Ajaokuta, Oshogbo and Aladja Steel Rolling Mills will never come to life”, adding that Ajaokuta mill alone could employ 17, 000 engineers. If you take 17,000 engineers off the unemployment market, that is a respectable self-esteem kind of job but corruption has hampered that’’.

    Another convener and Coordinator African Centre for Media and Information Literacy, Chidi Onuma, Keeping the names of those who have looted the treasury is a disservice to the fight against corruption, saying “I don’t know anybody you would ask in this  country who wouldn’t want to make those names public. It goes beyond the name.

    “We should also have the amount that the government has recovered so far from its effort in the fight against corruption. It will help in ensuring that there is greater confidence in the government and its anti corruption war.

    “It is important for Nigerians to know because it is beyond making an elaborate statement about how much was recovered and the corrupt people who are being prosecuted.

    “It is important that we also come out to tell Nigerians how much of the looted funds has been recovered and from who. Some of the reasons may be because of the legal implication because you have to ensure that the judicial system takes its course and ensure that things are resolved before you make anything public”.

    He said further that even though People have different opinion about the war against corruption, there has been some successes, but there is still room for improvement, adding that “we need to keep talking about it with the hope that it would primate every Sector and aspect of the Nigeria society. You do not resolve the issue of corruption in a day.

    “The current government has made efforts through whistleblowing, treasury single account among others. There has been some criticism, but it is something that we need to continue to work on as a people until we are able to reduce corruption to a bearable minimum.

    “Every now and then, you hear accusations of selective prosecution. I think the question. We should be as, I give ourselves is whether anybody who has been picked up for corruption irrespective of political affiliation, has committed a crime.

    “If a crime has been committed, we should look beyond where the person comes from, his religion, ethnicity of political party. If we look at that, I would say you that allegations can’t stand because in my own estimation. Almost everybody that has been put on trial for corruption in this country has a case to answer.”

  • Cleric predicts doom for Nigeria’s treasury looters

    Cleric predicts doom for Nigeria’s treasury looters

    The General Evangelist-designate of the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) Worldwide, Prophet Hezekiah Oluboye Oladeji, has predicted doom on privileged Nigerians looting the nation’s treasury and economy.

    Oladeji said the wrath of God will soon visit them if they continue to hold on to their loot and refuse to repent from the sins committed against God and their fellow Nigerians.

    The cleric called on the political leaders and those managing the economy and resources of Nigeria to imbibe attitudinal change if they want to escape the impending doom.

    Oladeji made the remarks in his message conveyed through electronic mail to The Nation in Ado-Ekiti on Saturday from Jerusalem, Israel where he led some clerics to pray for the restoration of God’s glory to Nigeria.

    He appealed to Nigerian leaders to refrain from massive looting of the treasury and embrace true restitution for the Nigeria’s glory to shine again.

    Regretting the high level of corruption in the country, Oladeji urged the Nigerian Christians to undergo three-day fasting and prayers for the lost glory of the country to be restored in due course.

    The clergyman, also known as “Baba Canaanland” noted that Nigeria would have been competing with developed countries like the United States, Britain, France and Germany if its leaders had been selfless as obtainable in those Western countries.

    Oladeji said: “God is ready to intervene in the affairs of the country and bring back the good old days. Nigeria is a country that was so blessed but it lost its glory along the line due to corruption of few of our leaders.

    “But I could see the powerful hands of God coming to deliver Nigerians from their enemies. God is ready to restore our lost glories and give us a new nation whose stars will reverberate all over the world.

    “Though, Nigeria is a great country with great potentials. We are known all over the world but for wrong reasons. But time has come now that God will intervene and give us a new nation”, he assured.

    “If we move closer to God, I see all the moribund banks, oil companies and dead airlines springing up again. I see new things happening to Nigeria. I see Nigeria rising and soaring and become a darling nation to many nations of the world.

    “All these may not come ordinarily except if we move away from sins and come closer to God. We must believe in the virtues of selflessness, probity, transparency, accountability and above all in honesty and love.

    “Bible made us to understand that love is the bedrock of any nation. Irrespective of our religious and political beliefs as well as our ethnic affinities, we must love one another and see ourselves as one indivisible Nigerians.”

  • Students urge Buhari to let treasury looters face the music

    The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), and the students community in Rivers State have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure no treasury looter escapes the long arm of the law.

    The students, who pledged their support to Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade, said they would be happy to see more treasury looters head to prison, if convicted.

    The students, who spoke under the Joint Campus Committee involving all the Students’ Union (SU) of tertiary institutions in Rivers State,  told the state governor, Nyesom Wike, to appoint one of them as his aide.

    Speaking on behalf of the students, Comrade Wondikom Chikwu Obinali, Chairman NANS JCC, and Comrade Orji Broda Kenneth, Chairman, Council of SUG Presidents in Rivers State, said no country in the world underestimates Students’ Union.

    Kenneth said the union wondered why the present administration has refused to consider the plight of overseas students on scholarships.

    The students called on Wike to look into infrastructural decay at the Rivers State College of Health Science and Technology (RIVCOHSTECH) and the Rivers State School of Nursing.

    Said Kenneth: “The leadership of students’ community in Rivers State is in support of President Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade. We are calling on the relevant agencies handling corrupt cases to speed up the trials of treasury looters in the country.We will be glad if more are being convicted and sent to prison.This would serve as a deterrent to others.

    “We believe that government a continuity, so we want the Governor of Rivers State to continue with the scholarship offer of the last administration.

    “We are also appealing to Governor Nyesom Wike to appoint a Special Adviser on Students’ Matter. We are worried that this vacuum has cost to students dearly. We benefited much during the previous administration because we had students’ representative in that government.”

  • Obasanjo, Utomi, others: punish treasury looters

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Prof. Pat Utomi and other experts yesterday called on managers of public institutions to punish treasury looters, revamp African value system and strengthen institutions in the drive to develop Nigeria and the continent.

    They proferred the solution at the opening of the third biennial international conference entitled: “Polity Debacle and the Burden of Being in Africa”.

    The conference was organised by the Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan, Ibadan.

    Obasanjo advised President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure there was no hiding place for treasury looters.

    The former President enjoined other African leaders to do the same so the continent can overcome its developmental challenges.

    Obasanjo was represented by the Deputy Coordinator, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Mr. Ayodele Aderinwale.

    According to him, “there should be no respite, there should be no hiding place for treasury looters. And good people with ideas must come forward to be counted, get elected or supported by good people to grow the economy and provide solid infrastructure.”

    Obasanjo noted with dismay that the focus of African leaders has always been on material resources rather than human capital, adding that African political leaders must make changes to reduce corruption and generate laws, policies and practices needed to catch up with the world.

    He added: “Africans will have to create the popular pressures that will make African leaders address the challenges of leadership, fiscal and economic, managerial, infrastructure, industrial and technological deficits”.

    “The town and gown must collaborate to make Africa the best.

    He said: “Those in political leadership position must enthrone a framework to provide public infrastructure.”

    “There is need to restore social justice issues around resource control, citizenship and governance. Let me state unequivocally that our standards of living will rise the moment we take our destiny in our hands. I know we have what it takes.”

    Utomi, former presidential spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, Prof Emeritus Ayo Bamgbose of the University of Ibadan and representative of Senator Binta Garba representing Adamawa North also spoke.

    Utomi attributed declining fortunes in Africa to collapse of culture, weak institutions, wrong policy choices and unfavourable disposition of leadership to human capital development ,among others.

    He explained that the collapse of culture has changed the orientation of people from delayed gratification to immediate gains and greed.

    Effective leadership, according to him, is all about shaping culture and the way things are done.

    The keynote speaker, Prof Akanmu Adebayo, a professor of History and Conflict Management, Kennesaw State University, United States of America (USA), noted that the cost of governance in Nigeria and other African countries was  too high and unsustainable.

    The don said Nigeria and other African countries must fight corruption, but emphasised the need to review the strategies for anti-graft campaign, stressing: “Anti-corruption strategies that have not worked include public shame and execution, special tribunals and/or the court and so on.”