The Blood Money Sambo Dasuki & Co Have Shared: There is God Oh! - by Obule Ocheyenor

 

Since the arrest of Sambo Dasuki, the former National Security (mis)Adviser (NSA), by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC) in connection with the $2.2 billion meant for the procurement of armament to fight insurgency allegedly diverted by senior government officials and politicians during former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, startling revelations about how the money was shared among prominent individuals continue to dominate the public space in recent weeks.

Nigerians can’t believe that those named in what has been dubbed “armsgate” could actually have taken part in the sharing of the blood money. The office of the former vice president, Namadi Sambo, allegedly received N20 million monthly as stipend from the NSA’s largesse. Ibrahim Idris Wambai, the former accounts officer II, revealed this to EFCC. Former loquacious first lady, Patience Jonathan’s, office also allegedly benefited from the “sharing,” yet, she went on national television shedding crocodile tears and saying: “These bloods that you are sharing, there is God oh!” while referring to the gruesome slaughter of Nigerians by Boko Haram terrorists under her husband’s watch in the northeastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.

The wanton sharing of the $2.2b made nonsense of the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria as cash, both in foreign and local currencies, was moved around audaciously among the elite while the war on terror suffered serious setback with devastating consequences. The revelation by a former director of finance in the office of the National Security Adviser, Shuaibu Salisu, buttresses this fact. He stated that $47 million cash was withdrawn from the Central Bank of Nigeria and carted in 11 suitcases to Sambo Dasuki’s house at No. 13, John Kadiya Street, Asokoro, for sharing. According to reports, Salisu said he suspected that the cash might have been given to the PDP and that he acted on instructions from the ex-NSA, Sambo Dasuki.

It was also revealed that N10 billion was withdrawn from the Central Bank of Nigeria for governorship and State House of Assembly elections that took place in April this year, and that the payment of the N10 billion was approved by the former finance minister and coordinating minister for the economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who has said she transferred $322 million from the Abacha loot to Dasuki, following instruction from Goodluck Jonathan. All these revelations were purportedly made by Salisu in a statement of witness/accused he wrote under oath in the presence of investigators of the EFCC. The statement was attached to the charges preferred against Salisu and filed in the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory.

Other key actors in the sordid drama now playing out on a national scale are the former Sokoto state governor, Attahiru Bafarawa, and his son, Sagir Attahiru, and Dalhatu Investment Limited. They also allegedly collected over N18.09 billion for PDP’s “Operation Capture Northwest”. Another $9.809m was allegedly collected by the ex-minister of state Yuguda from Dasuki’s office between December 23, 2014 and February 10, 2015.

Many prominent Nigerians and leaders also got huge chunks of the largesse. Among them is the former chairman of Daar Communications Plc, owner of Africa Independent Television and Raypower, Dr. Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi, who said he got N2.1 billion for “publicity”. He has since been arrested and is facing trial for money laundering.

Nduka Obaigbena, the swashbuckling chairman and publisher of Thisday newspapers group has also admitted that he collected the sum of N550 million from the office of the NSA as compensation for the Abuja and Kaduna offices of the media group bombed by Boko Haram, and another N300 million for Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria as a compensation for their publications seized by the military in 2013. But newspaper proprietors promptly denied that they got a farthing from him.

Obaigbena has been invited by the EFCC in connection with the armsgate scandal. While denying that he received any form of suspicious funds from the office of the NSA, Obaigbena, in a response to the letter of invitation from the EFCC dated November 8, 2015, stated that all funds received from the office of the NSA are payments for compensation to mitigate the dastardly Boko Haram twin bombings of the Thisday newspapers offices in Abuja and Kaduna on Thursday, April 26, 2012.

The tentacles are spreading day by day and many may still get caught in the web.

If there was no tinge of fraud in all these disbursements, why did the sharing of the money take place in the office of the NSA? Why weren’t proper procedures followed? This also brings to mind the sudden and suspicious postponement of this year’s presidential election from February 14 to March 28 on the spurious advice of the NSA, Sambo Dasuki. They claimed that the postponement by six weeks was based on a security report that some states in the Northeast were not conducive enough for elections to take place and that the security forces needed more time to clear those areas of terrorists before polls could take place. Were Dasuki and former President Jonathan’s cronies not merely buying time to enable them to completely share the money meant for military operations in the Northeast? What a sinister motive!

It is wickedness of the highest order for a few privileged people to divert money meant for counter-insurgency operations for selfish personal and political gains. Most of these people have nothing to do with the war in the Northeast that has resulted in the loss of thousands of lives of civilians and soldiers who had no weapons to fight, with at least five million civilians internally displaced, many of them children orphaned by the war.

The blood of all those who have died is on the hands of those who allegedly partook in the sharing of the money meant for weapons. It is too late for these wicked and greedy people to cough out the stolen blood money now. The damage has already been done as those who have been killed by terrorists cannot be brought back to life. The culprits, no matter how highly placed, must be brought to book so that impunity and brazen looting of the nation’s treasury would stop.

Mr Ocheyenor wrote from Lagos.