Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s president-elect, says he intends to probe the allegation by Sanusi Lamido, immediate past governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), that $20 billion was missing from the federation account. Addressing members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who visited him at the headquarters of his party in Abuja on Sunday, Buhari accused the outgoing government of not handling the issue in the appropriate manner.
“Imagine a situation where the former CBN governor who raised an issue of missing billions of money, not in naira but in dollars, the sum of $20 billion,” he said in Hausa language. “Instead of investigating to know whether it was true that the money was missing or not, they simply found a reason to remove him. So these are the issues we are talking about. Instead of investigating it, they sacked him. And God in his infinite mercy made him the emir of Kano. “In any case, that is what he wanted. And since this was documented, the new administration will take a look at it.
I heard some people have started returning money, but I will not believe it until I go and see for myself.” Sanusi, who recently paid a courtesy call on Buhari in order to congratulate him on his victory in the March 28 presidential election, had raised fresh concern over the issue during an interview with Christiane Amanpour, CNN chief international correspondent. “I raised a number of issues that I think have not yet been discussed and addressed sufficiently,” the revered monarch had said. “I think these issues reflect unconstitutional and illegal withholding of revenues from the federation account. “My position in the Central Bank was that there was always this gap of $20 billion after reconciliation between what the NNPC exported and what it deposited into the federation account. “After reconciliation, it could amount to $14 billion or $12 billion.
The petroleum sector is a major drain on the resources of the country and this has to be looked at “It must stop. I think those issues need to be addressed and until we address them and begin to close all the loopholes in government revenues, we are going to continue to create opportunity for the destruction of the economy.” The allegation raised by Sanusi led to his unceremonious exit from office about five months to the end of his tenure, as he was suspended on allegations of financial recklessness and misconduct. The government subsequently contracted Pricewaterhousecoopers to audit NNPC account and the firm submitted a report that required the corporation to remit $1.48bn to the federation account. Follow us on twitter @thecableng
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