Leadership, Abuja – Determined to fight the high level of corruption in the country, President-elect General Muhammadu Buhari has stated his intention to launch a probe into the alleged missing $20 billion Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) oil revenue.

Buhari, who stated that the manner in which the current administration handled the issue did not conform to global practices, also hinted that some people in the outgoing administration of Dr Goodluck Jonathan had started returning looted money to the treasury.

The president-elect stated this yesterday at the party’s presidential campaign headquarters in Abuja while receiving members of Adamawa State All Progressives Congress (APC) who were at the office to congratulate him on his victory at the poll.

The allegation of missing fund was raised by the former governor of Central Bank, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.

The controversial allegation was investigated by the National Assembly and later the federal government ordered a forensic audit which was carried out by PricewatercooperHouse (PcW).

The audit firm had long submitted its report, clearing the management of the NNPC of misappropriating $20 billion, but federal government is yet to publish the audit report.

Addressing the issue again, Buhari stated that the way the issue was handled was not standard practice as the outgoing government only resorted to sacking the whistle blower, asserting that he would definitely revisit the matter of the missing oil money.

Buhari, who spoke in Hausa language via an interpreter, expressed regret that instead of investigating the issue of the missing fund raised by the former Central Bank governor and now Emir of Kano, Ahaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the federal government swept it under the carpet and suspended Sanusi from the office

Buhari also disclosed that he had received information that some people in the Jonathan administration had started returning looted money to the treasury

“In terms of corruption, I heard that some people have started returning some money, but I cannot believe it until I go there and see It. I will revisit the $20 billion missing allegation NNPC oil fund,” Buhari said.

On unemployment and job creation, he said that it was a great danger for the nation to have such teeming youths without jobs, adding that he would use natural resources and agriculture to tackle the problem.

Commenting on Boko Haram, the president-elect said all hands must be on deck to flush out the terrorist group.

In his speech, the Adamawa State governor-elect, Senator Umaru Jibrilla Bindo, requested special intervention from the incoming government in the area of infrastructure. He decried the neglect of the state by the Peoples Democratic Party-led federal government.

APC decries last-minute looting of treasury, recruitments

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has decried reports of last-minute looting of the nation’s resources, hurried recruitment into the public service and rushed privatization of key financial institutions by the present administration.

The party, in a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, warned that such flagrant actions will have serious repercussions.

APC said that apart from the instances of such cases that had been reported in the local media, the party had been inundated with calls and messages by concerned Nigerians, alerting it to the unscrupulous actions of some officials serving under the Jonathan administration.

It said while Jonathan’s government remains in office till the midnight of May 28 and governance in the country will not stop because a new president has been elected, “it is incumbent upon the outgoing administration not to create any more problems for the incoming government than it had already done, or to tie the new government’s hands through some suspicious actions.”

The APC further noted that while the incoming Buhari administration will not get itself bogged down by an endless probe of the activities of the Jonathan administration, however, all actions taken since the result of the May 28 presidential election was announced may come under the searchlight.

“For example, the National Council on Privatization, which is headed by the vice president, has just approved the financial bid opening for transaction advisers for the privatization of the three development finance institutions in the country – the Bank of Agriculture, Bank of Industry and Nigeria Commodity Exchange. The question is: what is the rationale for rushing this exercise with just weeks left for this administration?

“Also, there have been reports, yet unrefuted, of a planned hurried recruitment into the Nigeria Immigration Service after a previous attempt ended in a national tragedy and the fleecing of innocent job seekers by mindless federal government officials. Apart from the fact that this last-minute recruitment is suspect, it is irregular.

“The Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services Board (CDFIPSB) is only empowered to recruit, promote and discipline only senior officers (levels 8 and above). The power to recruit, promote and discipline junior officers is vested in the different services, in this case the Nigeria Immigration Service.

“Therefore, the recruitment exercise now being conducted by the Federal Civil Service, under the auspices of the Presidential Committee to Assist on Immigration Recruitment, usurps the functions of the Board as it relates to recruitment of senior officers (level 08) and that of the Immigration Service as it relates to Junior Officers (levels 07 and below),” the party said.

It also called attention to a published report that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Mohammed, plans to use the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) to carry out a secret employment of no fewer than 500 workers before the end of April 2015.

“We do not know if this report, as well as others, is true. But if indeed these rushed privatizations and hurried recruitment exercises -in the twilight of the Jonathan administration – are true, they raise serious questions concerning the reasons behind such actions. We are, therefore, compelled to call on President Jonathan to call his administration officials to order, lest they engage in actions that can later embarrass his administration.

“This is against the backdrop of the precarious situation into which the Jonathan administration has plunged the nation’s economy, no thanks to years of ceaseless and unprecedented profligacy by the outgoing administration, as well as mind-boggling acts of corruption and looting of the public treasury by some administration officials and their collaborators,” APC said.