Mother of all fears is now gripping politicians across the registered political parties over their alleged involvements in the illegal sharing of the $2.1 billion arms scam during the administration of former president Goodluck Jonathan by his National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retd).
Nigerian Tribune gathered that this followed the resolve of the Mallam Ibrahim Magu-led Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to go after all the political parties’ leaders who collected “any money in whatever guise from anybody” on behalf of their political parties, with a view to retrieving such monies to the coffer er of the Federal Government and punish such people in accordance with the law of the land.
An informed source at the anti-graft agency headquarters in Abuja told the Nigerian Tribune in confidence that the comprehensive list of those to be invited by the agency any time from today had been prepared and endorsed and being kept top secret by its leadership to avoid possible leakages to those involved.
“Our list is ready, we are inviting all those involved to come and state all what they know about the illegal sharing of the arms deal, they knew themselves, some of them have been co-operating with our operatives, we are not after anybody, just come and return whatever you have taken, Federal Government is not a Father Christmas,” our source declared.
Our source also hinted that a full investigation into the financial activities of many of the Federal Government-owned parastatals and agencies under the former administration directed by President Muhammadu Buhari, had commenced.
Top on the list of the agencies whose Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), either present or former to be investigated are Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNP), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), National Maritime Safety Authority (NIMASA), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), among others.
The source disclosed further that preliminary investigations had shown that several billions of naira were allegedly diverted from the agencies of the Federal Government to fund the last general election.
For instance, an Abuja-based constitutional lawyer, Chief Okoi Obono-Obila, was said to have petitioned the EFCC, detailing how NITDA allegedly opened an annex office located on Marte Street, behind CBN Quarters Area,11 Abuja, equipped with the state- of-the-art gadgets to promote hate campaigns against President Buhari, in favour of the then ruling party of President Jonathan.
It was gathered that both the EFCC and the Department of the State Services (DSS) had already invited the NITDA management to explain what it knew about activities of the palatial annex and the involvement of the the top officials of the agency in partisan politics, as well as other alleged illegal award of contracts and recruitment of staff even after President Buhari assumed office and all the boards of MDAs were dissolved.
The source further hinted that several operatives of the agency had been deployed to the nation’s land borders, airports and other locations across the country to prevent some of the politicians and the heads of MDAs under probe from sneaking out of the country.
“Those are the little I can tell you now. I wish Nigerians can see the level which these looters have gone in diverting the nation’s resources into private pockets, they will appreciate Federal Government’s efforts at recovering the little they can, but mind you, no amount of blackmail will stop us,” the source said.
Chairman of the EFCC, Mallam Ibrahim Magu, was sighted twice at the Presidential Villa last week, where he had gone for consultations on the activities of the commission.
