As the battle for honesty rages between President Olusegun Obasanjo and his deputy, Atiku Abubakar, a report from an investigative panel, which appears to be neutral, concludes that the Vice President was, indeed, corrupt. The revelation comes on the heels of fresh claims by Atiku that Obasanjo had stolen $550million from the petroleum trust fund.
Contrary to Atiku Abubakar’s claim that his indictment by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Federal Government Administrative Panel of Inquiry is a premeditated political action intended to halt his presidential ambition, the report of a forensic investigation into the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) says he is culpable for the mismanagement of the fund.
The report obtained by THISDAY entitled: The Report of the Special Audit/Forensic Investigation of Petroleum Technology Devel-opment Fund (PTDF) From 199 to May 31, 2006, it submitted that the Vice President’s approval for the release of $20m from the treasury and subsequent placement in Trans International Bank without appropriation and approval by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) was improper and amounted to abuse of office.
The report, dated September 7, 2006 and addressed to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Chai-rman, Nuhu Ribadu, also said, among other things, that it would appear from its findings that the funds were obtained “for a particular purpose contrary to the main objectives of the PTDF.”
But the Vice President yesterday remained unrelenting in his rebuttal of his boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo’s, claim to financial fidelity, querying the Federal Government’s overall handling of the controversial Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF).
According to a statement yesterday by his organisation, the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation, the Federal Government might have breached the law in its handling of the fund as he alleged that contrary to the enabling law, only $145million of the $700million realised in the 2002/2003 bidding rounds was remitted to the fund’s account.
This, he claimed in the statement signed by his Media Consultant, Mallam Garba Shehu, violated the PTDF law, which required that proceeds of licensing rounds of oil blocks and their licensing be paid into the fund’s account to train Nigerians in special fields.
But the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, whose report on the Vice President’s handling of the PTDF’s finances triggered off the web of controversies, said Atiku’s insistence that the commission’s investigation was selective was a cheap blackmail that would not work.
The EFCC boss’ response, which came from far away Singapore at the ongoing annual meeting of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) coincided with the directive of the President that his (Obasanjo) aides should no longer respond to the growing allegations of financial impropriety against him by his deputy.
The forensic investigators, whose report appeared to have formed the basis of the EFCC report, said the PTDF under Atiku’s watch did not operate on formal annual budgets, adding that no goals were specified for each department and the entire fund at the beginning of each year.
They added that expenditure were embarked upon as the need arose and without restriction. “Therefore, the Fund operated without adequate planning and control,” they said, suggesting that this might have been responsible for the general mismanagement of the fund through placement in fixed deposits at bank with unsound financial base.
Wondering why, for instance, the PTDF would place $30million in 2003 in TIB that was already having cash flow problems, they concluded that the “long standing relationship between the VP and Otunba Fasawe could be the reason that informed the VP’s choice of TIB for the deposit” as he was “a prime and influential customer of TIB.”
Their evidence: ““The immediate transfer of the additional fund to TIB with its not too spectacular rating in the banking industry is likely to justify the allegation of the US Congressman, William J. Jefferson, that NDTV delayed the payment of a contract sum to iGate because they (NDTV) were expecting funds allegedly related to PTDF.
“All the drawings by Fasawe’s companies were made shortly after each dollar deposits.”
They said despite the liquidity problems of TIB, it granted over N1.5billion net of interest to Fasawe’s related companies, MOFAS Shipping Co. Limited and Netlink Digital Television (NDTV), as well as another N300million loan to Transvagagri Nigeria Limited, a company owned by Ahmed Vanderpuije, also a director of NTDV.
The forensic experts said several huge payments were made from the MOFAS Account between July 2003 and July 2004. “ For instance, Alhaji Umar Pariya (Personal Assistant to VP) received over N104million; PDP National Headquarters collected N100million; Mr. Bodunde collected N17million; Chief Lamidi Adedibu collected N1million while Polony & Co. Ltd. Received N90million,” they said. The report also showed that Atiku benefited from the account to the tune of N61million while his Marine Float Company got N250million.
But in his account yesterday, the Vice President suggested that the Federal Government had misappropriated the PTDF, asking about the balance of the $555million: “At this point, the pertinent question to ask is: where is the balance and who used it and under what law or which appropriation sub-head?”
Pressing further his query, the Vice President wondered why the Auditor General’s report on the audit of the PTDF account as ordered by the President had not been released and submitted to the National Assembly as required by the constitution.
Returning to his indictment by both the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Administrative Panel of Inquiry for placement of the fund’s money in fixed deposits in Equitorial Trust Fund (ETB) and Trans International Bank (TIB) without appropriate authority, Atiku insisted that he was not blameworthy since he followed the guidelines laid by the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) as required by the law.
The Vice President stated: “The law also provides that any disbursed amount should be invested in accordance with the guidelines approved by the Accountant General of the Federation, AGF. The AGF approved about 14 banks to hold PTDF deposits after certifying them to be healthy and suitable. These include the Equatorial Trust Bank (ETB) and the Trans-International Bank (TIB).”
Besides, he argued, the established operational procedure for the PTDF did not provide for Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval before funds could be deposited with any bank, as submitted by the EFCC and the panel of inquiry.
“It [fixing of funds] was a routine exercise, which was normally done by the management of PTDF under the direction of the Special Adviser on Petroleum Resources or the Vice President as the case maybe,” Atiku stated, adding: “Over $100m was deposited with First Bank and similar large sums with UBA at one time or the other without any such approval.”
The Vice President said about 12 other banks or so had amounts deposited with them without the approval of FEC. “In short no government department or PTDF required any approval from the FEC to invest their funds,” he stated.
He reiterated that the deposits in EIB and TIB were done in accordance with the approved guidelines, explaining that he approved them based on the Executive Secretary of the PTDF’s sound business judgment recommendation.
The signatories to the PTDF accounts, comprising officers in the AGF’s office and Ministry of Petroleum Resources, he added, released the funds to the banks as deposits on clearly defined tenor and interest rates to be paid.
In any case, Atiku argued, there ought to be little fuss of the deposits since the ETB had repaid it with interests while the Spring Bank that acquired TIB would refund the money trapped in the defunct bank.
“It is erroneous, if not mischievous, to accuse [me] of failing to get the FEC's approval when it has never been a requirement either in law or in practice,” Atiku said.
The Vice President also disagreed with the EFCC and the panel’s claim that the PTDF funds were deposited in the banks instead of using them to execute projects for which they were meant.
“It is very important to state that the approval granted by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) was for programmes and projects to be embarked upon after the project conception, design and implementation after meeting due process requirements, he said, claiming: “The approval was not for the award of contracts to be implemented immediately, nor was it an approval for the investment of the funds as the Kangaroo panel set up by the President tried to impute.”
On the controversial MOFAS and Marine Float accounts, he said while it was true that they were long standing accounts with the TIB and Habib Banks, “it was both wicked and malicious of both the EFCC and the Kangaroo panel of the President, to conclude that every transaction involving anyone, no matter how distantly related to the Vice President is questionable, while transactions in those accounts, including gifts to the President’s woman friend, business and the local community of the President should not interest the investigators or Nigerians in general.”
But speaking during a plenary session on corruption, at the ongoing 2006 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Singapore, RIbadu who advised that “instead of making poverty history, we should make corruption and mismanagement history,” said Atiku’s responses to his indictment were nothing more that subterfuge that would not help his cause.
After making an opening statement on the session titled “Partnerships to Combat Corruption: Rising to the Challenge”, a representative of the civil society organisations, Yemisi Ransome Kuti, drew the ire of the anti-corruption czar when she sought clarifications on the allegations that the probes which the EFCC had carried out, especially that of the Vice President, had been selective.
But responding, the EFCC boss said those allegations against the EFCC were mere blackmails that would not work.”
His words: “When we were going after 419 people, nobody accused us of selectivity. When we were going after those who looted the banks and we retrieved more than N200 billion from those crooks, nobody accused us of selectivity. When we were going after pipeline vandals, those who were stealing our crude oil, nobody accused us of selectivity.
“Now, because we are going after the politicians, who are the real and the biggest of all the crooks, suddenly, it has become selective. Selective for what? And to help who?
“It is just because some people believe they are untouchable and that they are above the law. But for the very first time, they are being brought to justice. The only thing is for them to blackmail. They just want to give a dog a bad name for them to hang it. What are they going to achieve out of this? How can they now accuse us selectivity. And I know you are talking about the case of the vice president (Atiku Abubakar). Isn’t it?
“This is somebody from my own village, my home town. So I am selecting him? To benefit who? It is just blackmail. But they are not doing any other thing apart from this cheap blackmail. But that will not stop us. It won’t deter us. They are thinking that it will work, but we are not going to buy into that. We are going to continue with the work. We are not looking for popularity, we are not looking for publicity for any election, we don’t want their money but we want justice for our people and for our country. We want to work for our future and we want to continue with it.
“The job is extremely difficult because it involves going after peoples lifestyle and stopping them from what they are already used to. They don’t just want to fold their hands; they will fight you back. And some of us even endangered our lives in the process. It is a work they are desperate to stop. It is a work hitherto in Nigeria you would not have heard it happened. The law enforcement agencies and the judiciary just take money and they will keep quiet. But for the first time in the history of our country, there are a group of people who are saying, no, they are not going to take money and that they are ready to do the job. We don’t want their money. We want to work for our future”.
Ribadu maintained that a country couldn’t single-handedly tackle corruption without the cooperation of other countries in whose custody most of the stolen funds are hidden.
“This is one of the reasons why we are pleading with the governments of these countries to stop receiving the looted and blood monies from Africa.”
Meanwhile, there were indications yesterday that the President had barred his aides and special advisers from responding to further claims by his deputy.
Obasanjo, who was said to have handed down this order from Japan, told his aides that if Atiku felt strongly about the contents of the EFCC and panel reports, “he knows where to address the issues."
According to a THISDAY source in the Presidency, the President felt that the exchanges of accusations could undermine the authority of government.
Noting that the Presidency had been “embarrassed” by the dimension which the face-off had assumed, the source said Nigerians were being fed with sleaze rather than responding to the question of corruption and abuse of office, which were contained in the two reports already presented to the National Assembly.
I think that one day, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund as well as other Western nations would legislate too and start treating those looters as terrorists just like Osama bin Laden”, he said.
Reacting to another question on the Abacha fund returned to Nigeria by the Swiss government, the EFCC boss stated that, “You see, regarding the money we got from Swiss, it was at a great cost to our country. We spent a lot of money hiring lawyers, accountants and other consultants before we could get the money repatriated. However, in the case of Britain, the United States, and some other countries, we got such monies repatriated with no conditionality,” he said.
The EFCC boss said the biggest challenge facing the world especially the developing countries is corruption.
He lamented that corruption has turned developing countries into beggars who live on the kindness of other developed countries.
“We (developing countries) are fond of living on the kindness of others. Instead of making poverty history, we should make corruption history,” he emphasised.
Ribadu, however, noted that corruption has drastically reduced in Nigeria especially since the last three years when his Commission was established.
To win the war against corruption, he said, “There has to be good leadership, transparency and leadership that are ready to take challenges.” He said the EFCC has so far convicted 82 criminals and recovered over $5 billion.
Meanwhile, the EFCC boss had told THISDAY in an earlier interview that during the month of October, more arrests would commence across the country declaring “We are going to put more corrupt persons in the cage”.
He said 2007 elections would witness a great change in Nigeria. “We are going to get those who are corrupt, the thieves among us. We must stop them from leading us again in this country. Any person who has questionable character would never contest election in this country again. We must be on the guard for those people.”
He said 2007 elections would witness a great change in Nigeria. “We are going to get those who are corrupt, the thieves among us. We must stop them from leading us again in this country. Any person who has questionable character would never contest election in this country again. We must be on the guard for those people.”
“Our past leaders have disappointed us in so many ways and we are not going to allow it again. The system is messed up across board and we are going to change from now. Nigeria will witness a change that our children will leave to tell a story that there was a man who have (the interest of) this country in mind.
“We have to clear up the system. We have to continue getting things right and doing the work we have started. We must stop bad people from getting into government, controlling things and also stop them from destroying the little things that we have put together.
“We have to get the rule of law to work for us; the guiding principle must be right and positive to get the system to work like other countries. Accountability and transparency must be our guiding words”, he stated.
