Nigerians may not know whether Tinubu would still have gone ahead even if he had an idea of what had been stolen, just to fulfill a said messianic calling of rescuing Nigeria and charting a pathway for progress.
However, what is known today, is that beyond the bravado and braggadocio President Tinubu puts up in public, he has a niggling headache about how to recover the quantum of funds stolen and what to do with the culprits.
What is also known is that billions of dollars were “made away with by some players in the Buhari administration”.
It was gathered from a source with Name withheld that
“Jim Obaze, the Special Investigator appointed by President Tinubu, is undeterred. And Tinubu is backing him all the way in the investigation.
“Whatever you think you have heard before now would peter into insignificance in the face of what is being discovered”. He has not been sitting pretty on the job as a result of constant meddling and needless interference from a few powerful players in the present administration.
Nevertheless, it first started as an unverified and unverifiable report that some powerful and influential operators close to President Buhari had become stupendously rich at the expense of Nigeria’s treasury.
However, what is now known is that billions of dollars were “made away with by some players in the Buhari administration”, a presidency Source disclosed.
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This is because even Jim Obaze, the Special Investigator appointed by President Tinubu, has not been sitting pretty on the job as a result of constant meddling and needless interference from a few powerful players in the present administration.
But the source said “Obaze is undeterred and Tinubu is backing him all the way in the investigation.
“Whatever you think you have heard before now would peter into insignificance in the face of what is being discovered”, the source said.
Figures in the billions of dollars were said to have been traced to some of them. The figures were too high to be believed prompting one of the sources contacted to ask: “Is it that some of these people you are talking about were the ones to whom funds for the purchase of our crude oil were paid? Did they pay these people directly for crude oil sales or what?’
Billions of dollars traced to individuals
Well, after weeks of investigation, it was confirmed that billions of dollars have been traced to certain individuals.
A source privy to what is going on said that “some of the figures you get to hear are troubling. What does anybody want to do with $6 billion? What does anybody want to do with $8 billion? These figures are something else”.
How did these disclosures come to light?
It was discovered that President Tinubu gave Obaze the Magna Charter to dig into any and everything that had to do with how funds from Nigeria’s treasury disappeared or found their way into private hands.
Moreover, It was in the course of pursuing leads at the CBN and the presidency that some authorised and unauthorised transfers and outright cash withdrawals were discovered.
From over-invoicing to forgeries, unauthorised releases, influence-peddling, funds diversion, arms deals, forex deals and other financial malfeasances, funds were traced and tracked to some influential operators in the last administration.
Monies printed using the instrumentality of ways and means, amounting to over N30 Trillion during the Buhari administration, suffered a series of alleged mishaps, leading to diversion and unaccountability.
But for the need not to compromise the ongoing investigations and litigation, a Presidency source said “Many disclosures would have been in the public domain. But that has not disturbed the work that is ongoing on how Nigeria’s money was stolen by a few people”.
While some persons close to President Tinubu have confirmed the development, some neither confirmed nor denied the discoveries, the identities of the persons involved and the sums of money at play.
The presidency source said: “What I can tell you is that some of these people are already talking. They are making revelations and the government is determined to get our money back. Except you see some of the raw documents and figures, you can never truly understand the magnitude of what happened to this country. And it was done by just a few people. The country’s funds were treated like personal allowances for enjoyment. Why do you think there is a problem with the naira and the exchange rate? It is because funds are in the hands of a few people who decided to buy up whatever is available in the market. That is why the government is starved of funds. But properties and businesses are already being seized”.
Tinubu, indeed, met an empty treasury. While it is indeed true that the treasury was looted, Tinubu, being “possessed with courage”, simply poured fuel on an already highly combustible situation in the country.
President Buhari, the former president of Nigeria has been reported to have told his successor to do whatever he needs to do to recover allegedly stolen funds because he knows his hands are clean.
Don’t forget also that several publications were made alleging series of corruption even when the erstwhile President was on seat.
