It
is the observation of the leadership of International Society for Civil
Liberties & the Rule of Law that the appointment of the VeePee Yemi
Osibanjo’s civil probe or fact finding team to look into the 12th April
2017 alleged discovery of a total of over N13.3billion in a flat apartment in
Osborne Towers at Ikoyi in Lagos State; is grossly and fundamentally erroneous
in the eyes of the law and moral decency.
The
Federal Government of Nigeria had on the heels of the alleged discovery and
recovery; claimed a false victory and attributed it to “the handiwork of
whistle blowing policy of the present Federal Government in sustaining its
fight against corruption”. The false stance and declaration of the Federal Government
above appears to have caught the attention and collective mindsets of many
Nigerians with the help of media creation and sensational reporting.
We
at Intersociety are not and can never be part of such broad-day
falsehood and deceit associated with the so called fight against corruption
under the present dispensation until the real and concrete steps are taken in
the that direction.
Intersociety
is thoroughly self-sustaining and as a thorough
bred independent, research and knowledge based organization in the advocacy
areas of civil liberties and rule of law, democracy and good governance and
accountability; and public security and safety; with its key officers and
volunteers grounded in law, criminology, security studies, conflict and peace
studies and journalism; our organization can never be taken for a ride or burst
to a corner in matters of civil liberties and public governance policies and
actions/conducts by any government, non state actor, individual or group in
Nigeria or any part thereof.
It
therefore remains our firm position that the anti corruption policies and
conducts of the present dispensation in Nigeria have woefully failed a
repugnancy test. They are nothing more than witch-hunting and
governmental desolation and crookedness.
As
far as anti corruption is concerned in Nigeria or any part thereof, our
organization has done several investigations on their handling styles by the
present dispensation in the Federation and our findings have consistently shown
that they are nothing to write home about. That is to say that those who claim
to be fighting corruption in the present Nigeria are chiefly responsible for
corruption as we have it in today’s Nigeria; a case of hyper corrupt people
fighting corruption.
We
had in our 16th April 2017 public
statement following the so called discovery of looted sum of over
N13.3billion, raised 34 questions for the present the Federal Government;
till date and as we write, none of the 34 questions has been answered correctly
in part or wholly.
It
was and still is our firm advocacy position that the Federal Government’s false
claims of discovery and recovery of looted sum of over N13.3billion in Osborne
Towers at Ikoyi must not be separated from the $2million Justice Ademola’s
house and $9.8million Moses Yakubu’s house discovery and recovery, etc.
It
remains our firm position, too, that those monies may not have been genuinely
discovered and recovered. Rather, they may most likely have been planted by
some cabalistic and malevolent politicians in Nigeria’s Presidency for the
purpose of setting up or roping in some penciled down regime enemies or
electoral, economic and political enemies of the federally ruling APC.
A
clear case in point is the recent public statement issued by the Anambra State
branch of the federally ruling APC accusing the former Governor of Anambra
State, Mr. Peter Obi of being the “owner of the looted funds” discovered
in one of the flat apartments in Osborne Towers at Ikoyi. The Anambra APC
statement further calls on the former Governor in most scornful and wicked
manner to cut short his trip abroad and come home and answer/take
responsibility of the discovered looted funds.
The
Anambra APC’s latest accusation is anchored mere fact that Peter Obi; likewise
others, rents and uses one of the flat apartments in the multi story building
where the money was said to have been discovered. His said rented flat
apartment was not the one where the illicit fund was stashed; yet the Anambra
APC is bent on singling him out.
The
Anambra APC statement came days after the announcement by a source in the
Presidency of the appointment of a civil probe team chaired by Vice President,
Yemi Osibanjo to probe same and report back to the appointing source in
fourteen days. The Anambra APC’s statement is clearly aimed at either
stampeding the civil probe or confirming the high possibility of the Party’s
controlled Federal Government agents planting such money to rope in the named
or similarly targeted “enemy citizens”. We still hold that it is possible the named
huge sums and similarly planted others were planted to rope in enemy target(s).
It is also possible that the Ikoyi Osborne Towers’ planted money miraculously
missed its target(s).
In
all, we make bold to say that the deliberate refusal of the present Federal
Government to allow for independent, impartial and expert criminal
investigations to be conducted or carried out by the office of the Deputy
Inspector General of Police for Criminal Investigations and its Fraud and
allied departments in the three high profile simulated “looted funds
discoveries”; have thrown up the following five critical questions:
(1)Who
planted the sum of $2million in the sleeping abode of Hon Justice Ademola
Adeniji in the night of 8th
October 2016 and where is the money? (2) Who planted the sum of $9.8million on
3rd February 2017 in
the Kaduna house of Mr. Moses Yakubu (former MD of NNPC) and where is the
money? (3) Who planted the total sum of N13.3billion on 12th
April or eve of it in one of the flat apartments in Osborne Towers at Ikoyi
Lagos and where is the money? (4) What are the sources of the planted
monies or who are the lenders of same? (5) Do their sources have to do with
CBN, presidentially/CBN linked or controlled forex dealers or hired commercial
Bank(s)?
We
have also identified the following fundamental errors and blunders in the
appointment of Osibanjo’s civil probe team:
The
unanswered question: who is the Presidency?; thrown in the direction of the
current Federal Government by the suspended Secretary to the Government of the
Federation (SGF) has messed up and made mockery of the independence,
impartiality, genuineness and credibility of the Osibanjo’s probe team and
raised a high risk of one being a judge in one’s own case (i.e. possibility of
the same or allied planters of the funds and their accomplices being asked to
probe themselves).
Demystification
of the suspended SGF (Babachir Lawal)’s unanswered question (who is the
presidency?) has further thrown up the following possible facts: (a) the president
of Nigeria may be in office but not on seat; (b) the president is not on seat
because he is medically indisposed; (c) the office of Nigeria’s president is
not vacant but its seat is vacant; (d) there is no Secretary to the Government
of the Federation/Federal Government who is the administrative symbol of the
presidency; and who statutorily issues appointment letters to such probe teams
and who should have specifically and statutorily issued a valid letter of
appointment to Osibanjo’s probe team; (e) the Vice President is not acting as
President occasioned by the absence in seat of the president; (f) the
Presidential Special Adviser on Media and Publicity can never and cannot direct
the Vice President or constitute a probe team headed by him; (g) the presidency
is currently run by a cabal; (i) the Vice President arrogated to himself the
responsibility of constituting the probe team which he is heading; (j) due
process was not followed in the said appointment of Osibanjo’s probe team.
The
issue under civil probe (Ikoyi planted or stashed funds) must not be treated
alone. Other planted funds such as those found in Justice Ademola and Moses
Yakubu’s houses and others should be taken together in any government credible
criminal investigation.
The Osibanjo’s civil probe team is an anathema
and unknown to Nigeria’s Criminal Justice System and amounts to gross
usurpation and undermining of the statutory functions of criminal investigative
agencies in the country particularly the Force CID and its DIG-FCID in matters
of this nature that borders on fraud and related others.
Prof Yemi Osibanjo and barely knowledgeable AGF
know little or nothing about expert, intensive and extensive criminal
investigations and their modern methodologies. Their being senior lawyers
notwithstanding.
Appointment of Osibanjo’s probe team is a sign of
total failure of the Nigerian criminal intelligence and investigation system
under the present dispensation. That is to say that these energy wastages and
allied costly expenditures would not have arisen if Nigeria has fully or
substantially embraced electronic security including footage or
LCD/screen/CCTV, camera and computer detective security; which can easily
expose the planters of such funds; and give a forensic room for their criminal
interrogations to ascertain or establish their criminal intents or otherwise.
The Osibanjo’s civil probe team can never
establish in the course of its civil probe the seven core elements of crime or
criminal investigation outcomes: guilty act (actus reus), guilty mind (mens
rea), causation, concurrence, harm, legality and punishment.
The best Osibanjo’s civil probe team can achieve
is to establish the act itself, which is already known to Nigerians; but it can
never establish the guilty intent or mens rea parented by the guilty act,
because it gravely lacks fundamental ingredients of modern criminal enquiry.
For instance, it can merely question, but cannot interrogate!
Handing the matter over to EFCC to investigate is
as bad as, if not worse than the Osibanjo’s civil probe; because the Commission
under the present Administration is gravely leprous and has earned national and
international notoriety as an appendage of the present “Presidency” in Nigeria.
We advise strongly that the Osibanjo’s probe team
should throw in the towel because of obvious lack of technical competence and
expertise, legality, legitimacy, neutrality and credibility.
The Osibanjo’s civil probe team should dissolve
itself or be disbanded so as to allow the NPF’s DIG-FCID and its relevant
departments to step in and get the suspended DG-NIA and others under probe
arrested. DIG-FCID should also invite all individuals and groups relevant to
its criminal investigation including the past individual owner of the said
house, the present corporate owner (i.e. Bank) as well as the corporate and
individual tenants in the house to assist it in its criminal investigation.
The scope of the criminal investigation to be
undertaking by office of the DIG-FCID and its relevant subordinate departments
must be extended to other “money discoveries and recoveries” such as Bureau de
Exchange, Kaduna Air Port, Balogun Market, Justice Ademola and Moses Yakubu’s
monies’ discoveries and recoveries, etc.
Signed:
Emeka Umeagbalasi,
Board Chairman
Mobile Line: +2348174090052
Chinwe Umeche, Esq.
Head, Democracy & Good Governance Program
Florence C.
Akubilo, Esq.
Head, Campaign
& Publicity Department
Contact:
International Society for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law
Phone Lines: +2348182411462, +2349063500218
Email: info@intersociety-ng.org
Website: www.intersociety-ng.org
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