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EFCC to probe Amnesty programme.

THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC) has started probing the activities of the Presidential Amnesty Programme and has invited immediate past Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, for questioning on July 28.

On his part, Kuku,  has said that he is ready to assist the anti-graft agency in its bid to probe the accounts of the agency under his leadership.

Kuku, who spoke from the United States of America where he is undergoing a medical procedure, said that the allegations of conspiracy, stealing, abuse of office and diversion of public funds being made against him, did not arise as the records of his administration were clear and available for scrutiny.

“I’m currently in the U.S for an urgent surgery on my knee and will certainly return to honour the EFCC invitation once I recuperate in September. The record of my stewardship under the Presidential Amnesty Programme is an open document and it is available for scrutiny since I have nothing to hide about what we did,” Kuku said on the phone.

The former presidential aide was responding to an invitation by the EFCC, directing him to report to the commission’s headquarters in Abuja for questioning on July 28, 2015 by one of its operatives named, Chris Owobu, over allegation of diverting public funds running into hundreds of millions of Naira.

The EFCC letter with ref: CR 3000/EFCC/ABJ/EG/T7/vol.25/263 and dated July 22, was signed by the Head of Economic Governance, Olufunke Adetayo Ogunbode and was sent and received by the Presidential Amnesty Office in Maitama, same day.

In it, the EFCC said: “The commission is conducting an inquiry into a case of conspiracy, stealing, diversion of public funds and abuse of public office involving you.

“In view of the above, you are kindly expected to be interviewed by the undersigned through Chris Owobu on Tuesday July 28, 2015 at No 5 Formella Street, off Adetokumbo Ademola Crescent Wuse 2, Abuja at 10 am.

“Kindly accept the assurances of the Executive Chairman’s best wishes and highest regards, please,” the invitation letter said.

But Kuku, who is outside the country on medical grounds, wrote back to the EFCC that he was indisposed to appear before the commission on July 28, since he was scheduled for an operation on July 30, at the Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Centre, United States.

Kuku’s letter to the EFCC dated July 24, 2015 was signed by his lawyer, Chief Karina Tunyan, SAN.

The lawyer wrote: “Our client is currently in the United States of America to keep appointment with his doctors at the Andrew Sports Medicine and ‘Orthopaedic Centre for surgery on one of his knees.

“He is expected back in Nigeria at the end of September, 2015 after the surgery and recuperation. He will definitely report in your office as a law-abiding citizen by 10.am on 30th of September, 2015,” the lawyer explained.

The documents from the Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Centre were also attached by the lawyer for the attention of the EFCC.

The Head of Media and Publicity of EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed the invitation extended to Kuku by the commission.

VANGUARD

Buhari Turns Down Former Petroleum Minister Alison-Madueke's Offer To Refund $250 Million.

Immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has offered to refund the sum of $250 million dollars to the Nigerian government in return for immunity from further investigation and possible prosecution, SaharaReporters has learned. However, her overture has reportedly received a cold response from President Muhammadu Buhari.

A source in Aso Rock and a ranking member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) told our correspondent that the former minister has been reaching out to influential government and ruling party officials, in and outside Abuja, to prevail on President Buhari to accept her offer and let bygones be bygone. According to our sources, Mrs. Alison-Madueke had enlisted the support of several figures close to Mr. Buhari, including Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, to intercede with the incumbent president. 

Mrs. Alison-Madueke was one of the closest ministers to former President Goodluck Jonathan, and is reputed to have anchored and facilitated numerous money-laundering scandals and deals that characterized the era of the just-ended Jonathan administration. The former Petroleum Minister oversaw several oil swap deals, the disposition of oil wells handed over by Shell Petroleum to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and the direct looting of funds through the NNPC. Former Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, was forced out of office after he revealed that the NNPC had failed to remit more than $20 billion in oil revenues with the CBN.

The former Petroleum Minister is the latest of several officials who served under Mr. Jonathan’s government that are currently negotiating “soft landing deals” with the Buhari administration. The incumbent president, who was sworn in on May 29, 2015, has vowed to probe various questionable financial actions taken by his successor or officials of his government. Mr. Buhari is reportedly determined to recover billions of dollars in stolen funds. 

One source said Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s latest offer to refund at least $250 million to the government came after she learned that President Buhari’s scheduled meeting with US Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, would include a discussion of ways that the US government could facilitate the investigation, arrest and prosecution of some officials of the Jonathan administration implicated in the theft of billions of dollars and a variety of frauds that resulted in the loss of significant sums of public funds in Nigeria.

SaharaReporters exclusively reported earlier in the week that the former Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has been cooperating with the Buhari administration’s ongoing, if quiet, probe of a series of questionable financial transactions by the Jonathan administration. 

Our sources revealed that Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala had given the Buhari administration documents that expose a number of shady financial deals executed by the Jonathan administration. 

Two days ago, we reported that former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Emeka Anyaoku, had appealed to Mr. Buhari to halt the ongoing probe of former President Jonathan’s administration. Even though Mr. Anyaoku has denied that he urged Mr. Buhari to stop the investigation of his predecessor’s financial dealings, our sources insisted that the ex-Commonwealth chief executive brought up the matter.

Our sources disclosed that Mr. Buhari was unimpressed by Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s offer. “Mr. President considers the $250 million as ridiculous considering the amount of money Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke is suspected to have diverted into her pocket and those of others,” said one source.

According to our sources, Mr. Buhari is intent on ordering a full audit of deals and transactions done by the former Petroleum Minister and her cohorts in the various agencies that reported to her.

In addition, the new president is reportedly focused on looking further at the extensive embezzlement of security funds by appointees of the former president. Mr. Buhari has approved an investigation of how more than $3 billion in Nigeria’s defense budget was spent. Security agents who searched the homes of former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, reportedly carted away some revealing documents. 

Earlier today, the Department of State Security (DSS) arrested and detained Gordon Obuah, a former Chief Security Officer to President Goodluck Jonathan. Mr. Obuah is reportedly being questioned over his alleged mastermind of a multi-million dollar oil bunkering deal during the former administration.

Sahara reporters.

FG orders IG to hand over Saraki's money laundering case file.

The Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and that of the Inspector General of Police might have disagreed on what to do with former Kwara Governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki, on his alleged use of fronts to withdraw the sum of N6 billion from the accounts of a company, Joy Petroleum, domiciled in Intercontinental Bank, now Access.

Initially, the Office of the IG had approached a Federal High Court in Abuja on April 26, 2012 to press charges against the former governor for conspiracy, forgery and stealing after claiming to have initiated a comprehensive investigation into a petition sent to it by Joy Petroleum that it was being denied access by the bank following the illegal change of signatory to the account by unknown persons.

Sen. Saraki

But in a legal advice to the IG on the move to prosecute Saraki and others named by the petitioner, the Attorney General advised against taking any action against Saraki and his aides over the bank issue, since from the records available to his office, the former governor had not committed any offence to warrant such trial.

In the legal document, which Vanguard sighted last night, dated 9thOctober 2012, with reference Number DPP/ADV: 061/12, and signed by the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, Mrs. O.O. Fatunde, the AGF Office, noted that it would be improper to hold Saraki liable for the internal actions of the then Intercontinental Bank.

The AGF Office said: “It would therefore be improper and unjust in the circumstance to hold Dr. Saraki , Mr. Pinheiro or indeed the companies criminally liable for the internal actions and decisions of the bank and its officials bordering on exercise of discretion.

“Every customer of a bank (corporate or individual) has the right to apply for a loan on the most favourable terms possible. This alone does not constitute any offence under any law because it is within the discretion of the bank to grant or refuse such loan application.

“Dr. Saraki and Pinheiro are alleged to be connected with the grant of the loans as promoter and director respectively of the companies. By virtue of Section 18 of the Act, a director or any other partner or officer of a company can only be held responsible in that capacity for the actions of the company if the company is guilty of an offence under the Act.

“Since the company in this case cannot be held to have committed any offence under Section 15( 1) (a), it follows that Dr. Saraki and Mr. Pinheiro cannot also be held criminally responsible only on account of having acted as promoter and director of the companies in connection with the said loan,” the DPP advised.

However in a new twist that is likely to upturn the whole investigation and pave the way for the prosecution of the former governor, the Attorney General has written a different letter to the IG to hand over the case file to him for further action.

In the new letter, which Vanguard obtained last night, the AGF in insisting that his office needed to carry out further review of the case file before any further action is taken on the matter.

In a memo with reference No. DPP/ADV: 061/12/91 and addressed to the Inspector General of Police with particular attention to the Commissioner of Police Special Fraud Unit, and signed by Haruna Isa Alabi, Deputy Director of Public Prosecution, the AGF said his office wanted the case file to be able to ascertain whether the evidence presented against Saraki and others was borne out of mere suspicion or was capable of sustaining a conviction before trial.

Saraki has said that there was no infraction of any law in the matter, which his companies obtained loans and paid back to the banks through agreed terms of settlement.

But the former IG, Mohammed Abubakar, who initiated the trial of Saraki, had alleged among other things that the former governor made the bank to lose funds by using his fronts while serving as governor to engage in money laundering.