- …as Presidency orders quick trial of confirmed cases
- ‘N2.3trn recovered funds still with EFCC’
There are strong indications that the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, has ordered the resumption of trial in certain graft-related cases pending in various courts across the country. Some of the cases involve 15 formers governors variously accused of embezzling public funds. The amounts involved in the cases against the 15 former governors have been put at N146.9bn.
A competent source at Justice for All, J4A, a programme funded by the United Kingdom government’s Department For International Development, told our correspondent at the weekend that such cases, involving top politicians, public servants and captains of industries, had been primed to receive accelerated hearing, based on promptings from the Presidency.
The corruption charges against the former governors, according to some DFID documents sighted by our correspondent, have lingered for periods ranging from 1999 to date.
The source, who craved anonymity owing to the sensitivity of the issue, revealed that these cases were among unresolved high profile corruption cases, which the British government had complained about in some of its missives to the Presidency, as capable of having negative effects on the anti-corruption crusade of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
The source said, “The home (British) government is not happy that the Buhari government is seeking international support for its anti-corruption campaigns, whereas there are many corruption cases involving top Nigerian politicians, among them governors, and such cases have ridiculously lingered for periods of 15, 16, 17 years in the Nigerian courts.
“We were directed to make this complaint known to President Buhari, which we did, and recently, we learnt that he had directed the Chief Justice of Nigeria to look into such cases.
“And reliable sources in the Judiciary also told us that the Chief Justice had asked for the case files of such high profile corruption trials and we got to know that cases involving 15 former governors were included.
“What hope does it give a citizen that an open case has taken over two decades, and it is not a murder or felony case.”
The source added that many of these cases had even been forgotten, “while new cases that would also be abandoned after some years, were being pursued by the anti-corruption agencies.”
He lamented that “public funds stolen, wasted and abused in Nigeria in the past 15 years, were more than 60 per cent of what the military had stolen in over 40 years.”
The source said the anti-corruption agencies established these cases against the ex-governors between 1999 and 2012, adding that some of the cases, which came up at Abuja high courts for mentioning in 2016, had curiously gone into limbo.
Consequently, the CJN, it was gathered, resolved to re-assign some of the cases, which might have been stalled by factors such as retirement or ouster of trial judges, petitions alleging bias, or inexplicable delay tactics.
THE 15 AFFECTED EX-GOVERNORS
Some of the ex- or sitting governors involved in the alleged lingering fraud cases, according to findings, include Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, accused of stealing N1.2billion; ex-governor of Jigawa State, Saminu Turaki, accused of stealing N36 billion; ex-Abia State governor, Orji Uzor Kalu, accused of stealing N5billion; former governor of Taraba State, Jolly Nyame, accused of stealing N180million; and Chimaroke Nnamani, ex-governor of Enugu State, alleged to have stolen N5.3billion.
Others are: ex-governor of Plateau State, Michael Botman, accused of N1.5billion theft; ex-governor of Adamawa State, Boni Haruna, accused of stealing N254million; former governor of Oyo State, Rasheed Ladoja, accused of stealing N6billion; and ex-governor of Nasarawa State, Adamu Abdullahi, accused of stealing N15billion.
A former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa, was also accused of stealing N15billion; former governor of Ogun State, Gbenga Daniel, was arraigned on 16-count charges of fraudulent conversion of land, failure to declare assets, stealing, and corruption; while the late former governor of Kogi State, Abubakar Audu, still has a pending corruption case in court. He is being accused of embezzling N4billion.
A former governor of Gombe State, Danjuma Goje, was arraigned for allegedly stealing a whopping N52billion; while Alao Akala, Oyo State former governor, is accused of stealing N11.5billion.
OTHERS…
Investigations further showed that four former ministers were accused of stealing N7billion; five ex-legislators allegedly stole N8.4billion; seven ex-public servants (federal) allegedly stole N6.9 billion; while five ex-public officers (state) are on trial over N7.3billion fraud. This is in addition to over N653billion fraud cases pending against top officials in the banking sector.
‘N2.3TRN RECOVERED BY EFCC UNACCESSED’
Meanwhile, J4A of the DFID has also found that about N2.3trillion, recovered from corrupt politicians and others, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, is still locked up in the record of the anti-graft agency as it has not been accessed.
“The looted funds were just locked up in EFCC accounts without any serious attempt to recover them,” the source said, adding that the funds were about 10 per cent of the $1billion reportedly borrowed to fight the Boko Haram insurgency.
‘DELAYED CORRUPTION CASES, MONUMENTAL SCANDALS’
Reacting to the delay in high-profile corruption cases, Prof. Smart Otu of the Department of Political Science, Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ikwo, Ebonyi State, described the trend as “monumental scandals of unimaginable proportion that rocked the Nigerian judiciary between 2011 and 2015.”
He said, “Even the N195 billion pension funds allegedly embezzled by the former Chairman of Pension Fund, Alhaji Abdulrasheed Maina, is one of the unresolved cases, which has remained inconclusive as the man has fled the country after being smuggled in. Same thing with the kerosene subsidy scam. No legal prosecution has been instituted since the National Assembly members concluded their investigations on it.
“No officials of the NNPC or the marketers have been sanctioned, thus emboldening them to continue to import kerosene and allocate to themselves and their cronies, rather than selling the product at the subsidised price.”
Otu also cited “$6 billion (£4bn) fuel subsidy scam involving two notable Nigerians; N123billion fraud alleged against Stephen Oronsaye; Stella Oduah’s N255million alleged car purchase scandal; NNPC missing $20bn; $15 million private jet arm scandal; and $1.1billion proceeds paid to Malabu Oil company,” as some of the festering corruption cases that had not been resolved.
The professor, therefore, urged the Federal Government to carefully select judges with integrity, that would work with its anti-corruption agencies, to take more advantage of the loopholes in Nigerian laws, rather than allow the defendants to take such advantage. He added that a special court, designated to prosecute high profile corruption cases, in line with the new reform in the administration of criminal justice system Act of 2015, should be set up.
He also advised the government to target a few cases across the six geo-political zones, and create for them, a special Corruption Investigative Unit, to be accompanied with performance evaluation mechanisms for both the judges and CIU staff.
Also speaking on the issue, the National President, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Mr. Malachy Ugwumadu, urged the Buhari administration not to give up on the alleged corruption cases involving the ex-governors.
Ugwumadu bemoaned the long delay in concluding the trials of the former governors, saying that it was a test of the resolve of the Buhari administration to fight corruption to a standstill in the country.
He, therefore, stressed that the government should not only prosecute the cases against the ex-governors accused of corruption, it should also ensure that it secured conviction, where necessary.
public funds stolen, wasted and abused in Nigeria in the past 15 years, were more than 60 per cent of what the military had stolen in over 40 years
The CDHR president said, “If we resolve, as a nation, that pillaging of our collective resources by some individuals must be revisited, we are at liberty to proceed as a nation. Take the case of former Enugu State governor, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani; his case suffered heinous hiccups with an administration that was not interested in prosecuting members of their own political class.
“In the process, we witnessed legal fireworks in which we saw the cases being scuttled by prominent lawyers. Some of the cases travelled to the Supreme Court on interlocutory applications for about 10 years. But with the Criminal Administrative Justice Act, there should be speedy trial of suspects. In the Federal Capital Territory, I am aware a practice direction for the Act was launched by the chief judge.
four former ministers were accused of stealing N7 billion; five ex-legislators allegedly stole N8.4 billion; seven ex-public servants (federal) allegedly stole N6.9 billion; while five ex-public officers (state) are on trial over N7.3billion fraud
“These cases (ex-governors’) are a test of the resolve of the present administration, which rode into power on the crest of dealing with the issues of corruption.”
Efforts by our correspondent to speak with the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, on the matter, proved abortive.
Sagay did not pick calls made to his phone and also did not reply text messages sent to him as at the time of going to the press.
