As President Muhammadu Buhari and a former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, continue to engage in a war of words, PREMIUM TIMES has obtained a report by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission regarding corruption allegations against Mr Obasanjo.
The fresh clash between the president and one of his predecessors
was triggered when Mr Buhari, while receiving a delegation of the Buhari
Support Organisation at the Presidential Villa on May 22, indirectly
accused Mr Obasanjo of wasting $16 billion on power projects with
nothing to show for it.
Mr Obasanjo immediately fired back at the president describing his claims as ignorant and unsubstantiated.
The report, signed by the then EFCC’s Director of Operations,
Ibrahim Lamorde, addressed allegations of conspiracy, fraudulent
conversion of funds, abuse of office, foreign exchange conversion and
money laundering against the former president.
The petitions
On August 22, 2005, the then governor of Abia State, Orji Kalu,
submitted a petition alleging corrupt practices against Mr Obasanjo to
the EFCC.
A second petition was delivered two years later – in November 2007 –
by the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, a nongovernmental
organisation headed by Debo Adeniran, a civil society activist.
The two petitions were consolidated into a single 12-point petition
which dealt largely on allegations that Mr Obasanjo’s aides and some
Senators connived and took huge sums of money in oil and commissions
from Defence contracts.
The petition also alleged that the hostels and sports complex at Mr
Obasanjo’s Bells Secondary School and University were constructed by
Strabag Construction Company with taxpayers’ money, adding that the
total assets value of the university – including ongoing constructions
at the time – stood at about ₦40 billion.
It also accused the former president of, as the Petroleum Minister
between 1999 and 2006, overseeing “a significant number of fraud” in
crude oil sales and accrued commissions in the Ministry of Petroleum
Resources.
Other allegations against Mr Obasanjo include the “evidence” that
he owned foreign accounts, including a Platinum Credit Card, with which
he siphoned money and made purchases abroad; that a “N6.5 billion
proceeds” realised from the appeal fund for the construction of Mr
Obasanjo’s Presidential Library were diverted to private use; and that
Mr Obasanjo used his presidential powers to approve a licence to
Obasanjo Farms, which was in “shambles” while he was in prison, to be
sole importer of grant parent stock of chicken.
The petition also included allegations that the federal government
under Mr Obasanjo exceeded its spending on Ministries, Departments, and
Agencies by about ₦133 billion in the 2005 budget and that ₦521 billion
was sunk into the now defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria, and yet,
Nigeria was in darkness.
The petitioners further alleged that the former president, while
still in office, allegedly diverted official funds to buy about 200
million units of Transcorp shares; used state funds to pursue his ‘Third
term’ agenda; and spent about ₦300 billion on construction and
maintenance of Nigeria’s roads, yet, “there are still no good roads.”
The EFCC said after receiving the petitions, it sent out an
investigating team to visit Bells Secondary School and University,
Obasanjo Farms in Ota, and also contacted Strabag Construction Company
and officials of the Presidential Library.
Furthermore, according to the Commission, a letter was written to
Mr Kalu inviting him to meet with the EFCC investigating team and assist
the investigation by supplying evidence to help substantiate the
allegations he raised.
“This was followed by series of telephone calls to all his houses both in Nigeria and abroad,” the EFCC report stated.
“A final appeal, through publication of the invitation, was
made in newspapers. All these spirited efforts were unacknowledged as
Chief Kalu declined repeated invitations.
“The second petitioner, the Chairman of CACOL, Mr Debo
Adeniran, appeared in the Commission in Lagos and threw more lights on
his write-up.”
Contacted on Friday night, Mr Adeniran confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES
that he did submit a petition against Mr Obasanjo in November 2007 at
the EFCC’s Lagos office.
Mr Adediran said following the petition, the then EFCC chairman,
Farida Waziri, set up a five-man panel to look into the allegations.
“I was only invited to adopt the petition, the panel did not
invite us again, even after Mr Obasanjo gave his response, they didn’t
invite us to puncture his claims,” Mr Adediran said.
Obasanjo responds
In his response to the allegations against him to the EFCC, Mr Obasanjo denied any wrongdoing or involvement in corrupt acts.
He said his Obasanjo Farms was ‘structurally developed’ between
1979 and 1995 and was making a substantial profit before his detention
in 1995 caused the farm to suffer a reversal of fortune.
However, by 1998, Mr Obasanjo, according to the report, said the
farm was reorganised “towards a new profitability path that spurred its
full rehabilitation and expansion.”
On Bells Schools, Mr Obasanjo said all the construction in the
school since inception in 1995 had been done through direct labour which
was supervised by himself and other officials.
On the issue of crude oil sales and fraud in the Petroleum
Ministry, Mr Obasanjo said the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation, and the Minister of State for Petroleum,
were fully responsible and should be contacted for more information.
The former president said he has never owned a Platinum Credit Card or carried one “all his life.”
He also denied having a foreign account anywhere in the world and
called on the EFCC to undertake a global search and of any such account
was found, it should be frozen and the proceeds be published and
subsequently seized.
Concerning the defence contractor, Mr Obasanjo said the ministers of defence were in a better position to provide the details.
What EFCC found
The EFCC said based on its own investigation, Bells Schools started
off in 1991 with two blocks of burnt bricks hostels, one each for boys
and girls, as well as a few number of classrooms.
“That by 1998 two additional blocks of hostels were added, again
one each for both and girls. Investigations revealed that these blocks
of hostels were built by direct labour contrary to the claims in the
petition that it was built by Strabag Construction Company Limited,” the
report said.
The report noted that Strabag Construction Company never
participated in building the sports complex or hostels at any of Mr
Obasanjo’s institutions.
On the Defence contracts, the EFCC said investigators showed that
the Ministry awarded contracts ranging from military equipment to other
related hardware valued at about N6.7 billion, $28 million, €26 million,
DM6 million.
“All documents pertaining to importations, bank statements,
payments and supplies made by Ministry of Defence were scrutinised and
nowhere did it show that any benefit accrued to any individual or group
associated or in any way linked to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo,” stated the
report.
On the various contracts awarded by the NNPC and the Petroleum
Ministry, the investigators also found that contracts valued at over
$300 billion and ₦500, awarded to over 20 different companies, were
neither directly nor indirectly linked to Mr Obasanjo.
The report’s findings on the Presidential Library showed that its
fundraising launch on May 14, 2007, realised ₦3.5 billion and $250,000.
Of that sum, N1.3 billion was paid to the project contractor, Messrs
Gitto Construction Company of Nigeria, as well as the sub-contractors
and the project consultants.
On May 26, 1999, three days before he was sworn in as President, Mr
Obasanjo entered into a Trust Agreement with Lucky Egede, a lawyer, and
Daniel Atsu, whose both addresses were situated at Obasanjo Farms
Nigeria Limited, Ota, Ogun State to handle the affairs of the entire
farm, according to the report.
The former president’s name was also removed from the list of
Directors of the Farms in 1999 when he was going into public office, the
report added.
The Trust Agreement with Messrs Egede and Atsu were terminated immediately after Mr Obasanjo left office in 2007.
“That investigation revealed that the Obasanjo Farms had
steadily grown its balance sheet over the year (sic) through credits
obtained from various banks long before he was president,” stated the report.
“That between 1988 and 1998, over N41 million was borrowed from
First Bank, Union Bank, NAL Merchant Bank, Afribank, and UBA and this
was used to grow the Farms while proceeds through profits were
reinvested into farms.
“These loans, it was gathered during investigation, had since been repaid.”
On the Transcorp shares, the EFCC said the blind trust managers of
the former president’s businesses approached the UBA for ₦500 million
credit with which they bought 500 million units of Transcorp shares as
N1 each.
“It was also revealed that the shares were used as collaterals
and when the president was approached on the matter, he opted to yield
back the shares to UBA as it became apparent that this has a strong
public concern.
“The decision he took was to return it to UBA where it had been warehoused all along.”
The EFCC further stated that between 1999 and 2007, the PHCN
received over N273.65 billion and not N521 billion and that the
appropriation was for its day to day activities, including generation of
electricity, transmission, and distribution.
The various contracts awarded in relation to electricity
generation, according to the report, amounted to N22 billion, $445
million, and €29 million.
“All the documents relating to payments have been checked and
scrutinised and there was no reference whatsoever to the former
president, his relations, or any front benefitted from the contracts.”
The report further stated it could not establish that Mr Obasanjo
diverted public funds for the pursuit of his ‘Third term’ agenda even
after the Commission “threw public challenges soliciting for evidence from anti-third term forces in the National Assembly.”
“Going by the evidence from the facts assembled during the
course of the investigation, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo could not be
directly linked with the allegations,” the report concluded.