A civil society organization known as Coalition for Nigeria Movement, CNM, has accused ex-Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan of milking the nation’s treasury dry during their tenures.

It claimed that the duo, when they held sway as President, turned government funds into ATMs where they, their associates and cronies withdrew money to finance their lifestyles.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday in Abuja, CNM’s National Convener, Mr. Sabo Odeh lamented that under the governments of Obasanjo and Jonathan, Nigerians were almost misled to believe that democracy is synonymous with corruption.

He, therefore, recommended that the Federal Government should conduct a comprehensive audit of government funds by probing national finances from 1999 – 2015 so as to bring the ex-leaders to book.

The group also opined that Nigerians should declare former presidents, Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan as persona non-grata and not accord either of them any respect either in public places as former presidents or elder statesmen.

Text of Sabo’s speech reads: “Considering our history of truncated democracy and aborted republics, our successfully keeping at democracy for upwards of two decades is a feat that is worth celebrating, which the country has rightly celebrated.

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“It is however alarming that there is a pocket of evil people that are saddened by the very fact that Nigeria’s democracy have survived their repeated assault on it, which has made their intentions to abort two decades of continued democracy to fail serially.

“So toxic is their bad wish for the country that they are unable to hide their disappointment and anger that the country is on the path of thriving in spite of their willful acts of sabotage against the nation.

“These axes of evil have in recent times spoken through two former presidents, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. It is interesting that these are men that Nigerians have the misfortune of enduring as leaders for fourteen out of the twenty years of democratic rule.

“These are men under whose administration Nigerians were almost misled to believe that democracy is synonymous with corruption; they presided over fourteen years of the country being parceled out to friends and family – government funds became ATM where they, their associates and cronies withdraw money to finance their debased lifestyles.

“There is a long list of national assets that were fraudulently privatized against the interest of the country. Proof that these entities were sold under questionable terms is in the very fact the sectors are being held hostage while the supposed buyers are unable to meet basic benchmarks.

“One would have expected that the disgrace of being found to have looted the collective treasury would have forced these men to seek out the path of honour but it appears they are too far gone to the dark side for them to be remorseful.

“Instead of finding ways to atone for their sins in the hope that they will one day be considered in the light of legends like MKO Abiola and President Buhari, they have rather resorted to piling more sins on their existing transgressions. Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan have decided to continue assaulting the country on several fronts and in various guises.

“We are of the opinion that their resort to attacking the integrity of Nigeria while making it appear as if their target is President Buhari is a strategy to draw attention away from the years of bad governance that they inflicted on Nigerians.

“It is a concept of making the current state of affairs appears dismal so that the horrible foundation they had laid for our democracy can be forgiven.

“While they are free to attempt exonerating themselves from their misdeeds, what they are not allowed to do is to go about it in a way that further does damage to our body politics.

“The utterances of Obasanjo and Jonathan in recent weeks are capable of sparking off ethno-religious crisis in the country because they continue to speak in ways that pitch one section of the country against the other.

“They incite Christians against Muslims, they pitch other ethnic nationalities against the Fulani even as they encourage some parts of the country to wallow in victimhood, a situation that has fueled separatist agitations of different shades.

“They even went beyond merely making inflammatory and inciting utterances to actually courting foreign support to destabilize Nigeria.

“Taken with their recent ugly remarks and posture in the public domain, these subversive actions all point to the fact that Obasanjo and Jonathan not have the interest of the country at heart as erroneously believed in certain quarters.

“Let us point out that these evil utterances are not in any way intended to be fair criticism of the government of the day. They are rather intended to make the country fail.

“It must be noted that in the era of both men as presidents, they would not tolerate such from anyone as those who criticized them are summarily dealt with.

“We must further state that Nigeria is not the property of a few people. The country belongs to us all. A consequence of this is that we must rise up to ward off the attacks by these men and their agents on the long term stability of Nigeria.

“They have cornered enough resources to buy citizenship in other countries for themselves and their family members; in order to retain what they have looted they have no qualms about plunging the country into crisis.

“Nigerians owe it a duty to protect themselves from these kind of desperate men and any measure necessary to curtail their excesses and stop their evil plans against the country.

“Desperate times they say call for desperate measures. Our belief is that the unethical behavior of these two men should be visited with unorthodox responses as a deterrence.

“To this end, the Coalition for Nigeria Movement hereby presents a 7-point demand to the Federal Government, which must be met to prove that the present administration is no colluding with Obasanjo and Jonathan to ink the country. Our demands are:

“That the Federal Government conduct a comprehensive audit of government funds by probing national finances from 1999 – 2015.

“This probe should be with a view to unravel the mysteries surrounding the loss of Nigeria’s resources, which has become imperative to unveil the true identities of those who stole Nigeria blind but are today parading as elder statesmen.

“That anyone indicted by the aforementioned investigation should be made to stand trial and handed the stiffest punishment applicable where they are convicted.

“This is to serve as deterrent to those that think they can loot the treasury and then assume the roles of critics in order to evade justice.

“That the federal government, as another phase of the anti-corruption war, prioritize the recovery of assets that were illegally privatized or sold to family members and associates of Obasanjo and Jonathan.

“In addition to recovering the said assets, government should open corruption probe and trials of those that took part in this heinous crime against Nigeria.

“That the nation’s anti-graft agencies should get a marching order to trace foreign assets that were illegally acquired using looted funds using international collaboration platform that exist for this purpose.

“Countries where assets are domiciled should be encourage to cooperate with Nigeria while the necessary procedure for asset recovery and forfeiture for proceeds of crime should be lodged with those nations to recover that has been stolen from Nigeria.

“That henceforth Nigerians should declare former presidents, Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan as persona non-grata and not accord either of them any respect either in public places as former presidents or elder statesmen.

“This stance shall persist is until such a time that all the sponsors of terrorism either directly or indirectly are unraveled in the country.

“That the Federal Government should henceforth not extend any invitation to state functions to any of Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan for using their positions in the past to enrich themselves and families to the detriment of the common masses of our beloved country.

“That the federal government notifies friends and partners of Nigerians to stop further transactions and interactions with both men or risk being enemies of Nigeria.

*Countries that continue to hobnob with either men would have proven that they are the international components that are fanning the embers of the security breaches in Nigeria.

“That no Nigerian will be harassed, arrested, prosecuted or criminalized for publicly humiliating, insulting or taunting these men for what they have done to Nigeria.

“This should be a new approach to treating treasury looters and those that have proven that they are enemies of the country.

“The Coalition for Nigeria Movement will not stop at just making these demands but will begin a nationwide mobilization and contact activities to get more Nigerians on board in the quest to properly criminalize the theft of public assets and running subversive activities against the country irrespective of who is involved.

“We shall also be mobilizing Nigerians to join us on piling pressure on the government of the day not to shy from its responsibility of defending Nigeria’s democracy against subversive past leaders.

“We want Nigerians to remember that it a sacred duty for all of us to ensure that our democracy survives into perpetuity. This is a task that requires that all sentiments are discarded while national interest takes primacy.”

The Kano State Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission has described the claim by the Emir of Kano, Malam Muhammad Sanusi II, that he was not the accounting officer of the Kano Emirate Council as a misrepresentation of facts.

This is contained in a preliminary report of the Commission on the investigation being carried out in respect of the alleged misappropriation of over N3.4 billion by the Kano Emirate Council.

The report was signed by the commission’s Chairman, Mr Muhuyi Magaji, a copy of which was made available to Reporter in Kano on Thursday.

Emir Sanusi had in a reply to a query by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje over the alleged N3.4 billion misappropriation, claimed that he met only N1.8 billion in the Emirate Council accounts at the time of his appointment as emir.

The Nation recalls that the monarch also maintained that he was not the accounting officer of the emirate at the time but the institutions secretary before his ascension of the throne.

But in the latest report with reference number PCAC/GEN/6/VOL.I dated June 11, 2019 and addressed to the Secretary to the State Government, the anti-corruption body implied that the emir was not being truthful in his defense.

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Part of the report reads: “In furtherance to the Commission’s earlier communication No. PCAC/GEN/6/V.I dated 31st May, 2019 on the above subject matter and the unfolding events, the Commission deemed it necessary to make some clarifications as follows:-

“It is imperative to state categorically that, the Commission’s investigation is on alleged misappropriation and questionable expenditures but not on the funds left behind by the Late Emir of Kano Alhaji Ado Bayero and we still maintain our stance.

“In the cause of investigation we undertook an analysis of the main Account belonging to Kano Emirate Council and domicile at First Bank with account No. 2005888452 starting from the era of the Late Emir to enable the Commission have an idea of how the money is being managed.”

According to the report, there were 783 activities bordering on withdrawals, transfers and placements from Jan. 2, 2013 to June 6, 2014 during the time of the late Emir.

“As from 2nd January 2013 to 13th April, 2017 the opening balance is N432,338,412.98. Total credit made in the account during this period was N6,784,146,335.73 while the total debit during the period under review is N7,209,035,163.09.” It said.

However, it added that, “The closing balance as at April, 2017 is N7,449,585.62.”

It further indicated that “on Feb.13, 2014 and Feb. 26, 2014 payments were made to Philko Ltd, the company said to have undertook the construction of Ado Bayero Royal City via Inter Bank transfers of the sum of N776,159,519.50.

“There were transfers of N388,079,759.75, N338,079,759.75 and N50,000,000.00 made on Feb. 13, 2014 and Feb. 26, 2014 respectively; making the total quoted figures for Philko Ltd.”

The report also alleged that during the period, fixed deposit placements were made to the tune of N581,884,729.54 (placement and rollovers) while net withdrawals on some engagements both cash and withdrawal stood at N1,056,533,728.31.

“In summary, the total withdrawal made from the Account under the Late Emir was N2,414,577,977.35, subtracting this amount from total debit on the account which is N7,209,035,163.09.

“It is evidently clear that the current Emir is responsible for the expenditures to the total sum of N4,794,457,185.74 from the Emirate Council Account domicile in First Bank Plc,” it said.

Similarly, it alleged that all the expenditures made by the Emirate Council were either based on the approval or instructions of Emir Sanusi.

It attached copy of a payment voucher in respect of one of the withdrawals to buttress its claim, which reads, “Being payment to the above named in respect of making special prayers for peace as directed by H.H. Emir of Kano respectively”.

“Therefore, any claim that the Emir is not the accounting officer of the Kano Emirate Council is a deception and a misrepresentation of facts.

“Specifically, the reason of our recommendation for the suspension apart from obstruction of investigation which formed the basis, investigation further reveals that Rufa’i Buhari (Senior Accountant) usually made cash

withdrawals directly from the account and change it to Dollars on behalf of the Emir.

“Sometimes direct transfers from the account are made to a Bureau De Change belonging to one Jazuli Sani who was said to have died.

“The Commission still maintain the allegation on unappropriated, seemingly personal expenditures, making the total sum of questionable expenditures uncovered by this investigation to the tune of N3,432,090,797.94 only”, the report added.