Nigerians
recently learnt of an explosive report the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission forwarded to President Muhammadu Buhari about alleged corrupt
practices by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
In the report
to the president, the EFCC detailed how Saraki – in connivance with his aides
and associates – allegedly laundered N3.5 billion traced to the Paris Club loan
refund to states.
Investigators
say Mr. Saraki enlisted the service of a consultant, Robert Mbonu of Melrose
General Services Limited, and Kathleen Erhimu, a staff of Access Bank to liaise
with his aides and associates to launder the fund.
The accused
persons are Mr. Saraki’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Gbenga Makanjuola, Obiora
Amobi, Kolawole Shittu and Oladapo Idowu.
When
allegations of diversion of parts of the over half a trillion naira Paris Club
refund money emerged in February, sparking nationwide controversy, state
governors denied misusing the money, and slammed the EFCC reported probe as
“unwarranted attack on the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, its officials and
associated entities”.
Mr. Saraki
swiftly dismissed reports linking him to the money as “concocted”, and accused
the EFCC acting head, Ibrahim Magu, of being the source of its leak.
But the report
to President Buhari, seen by PT, provides details of a complex web of
questionable money transfers, which investigators say ended up in the pocket of
the Senate president.
The report, as
well as interviews with officials, also offers some response to the widely-asked
question of how Mr. Saraki allegedly became linked to the funds, despite not
being a governor. State governors were the direct recipients of the money on
behalf of their states.
Paris Club
Loan Refund
The Nigerian
government reached a debt relief deal with Paris Club in 2005, and paid $6.2
billion to guarantee a debt relief of up to $18 billion, according to the to
Debt Management Office.
But not long
after the deal was reached, some states and local governments began raising
questions about possible over-deductions of their share of the loan repayment.
They argued that the deducted amount did not reflect their actual borrowings
from Paris Club between 1995 and 2002.
Many states
initially hired consultants to help pursue a refund, but later resolved to
engage a consortium of consultants for coordination.
Reconciliation
of accounts and negotiations established that over-deductions took place, but
states were unsure of how much each state or local government was overcharged.
The complex
account reconciliation reportedly made it difficult for the previous
governments of Olusegun Obasanjo, Umar Yar’Adua, and Goodluck Jonathan, to
settle the matter.
However, the
current Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, said records showed some states
received some refund under previous administrations.
To help states
pay workers and retirees, Mr. Buhari, who took office two years ago, continued
the reconciliations.
As the
reconciliation process was still ongoing, the government pegged initial
payments at 50 percent of the estimated excess to the claimants, Mrs. Adeosun
said.
The payments
were not budgeted for by the federal government
meaning they
did not receive the constitutionally-required authorization of the National
Assembly.
State
governors were the direct recipients of the money on behalf of their states.
SHADY DEAL
Last December,
the Ministry of Finance commenced transfers to states. All 36 states received
between N4 billion and N15 billion.
Sources
familiar with the deal told PT that shortly before the ministry commenced
transfer after all paperwork had been completed, governors decided to warehouse
some of the money – about N17 billion – in the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.
According to
the sources, the governors hoped to use the money to settle consultants who
worked for the refund.
The governors
also anticipated a backlash from the National Assembly which might have
complained because the refund was not captured in either the 2016 or 2017 budgets.
Saraki, aides,
associates and the coincidence
In its report,
the EFCC highlighted a number of coincidences in the disbursement of the N3.5
billion and past activities of Mr. Saraki.
The EFCC
report did not say Mr. Saraki personally moved some of the N3.5 billion.
But while
tracking the money, anti-graft detectives found a consistent pattern in the
individuals named in the alleged money laundering scheme.
For instance,
Mr. Makanjuola, Mr. Saraki’s Deputy Chief of Staff, featured prominently in the
alleged laundering of the N3.5 billion.
Mr. Makanjuola
once served as a lawmaker from Kwara State.
Last week, he
was named in an ongoing corruption case by a former research institute provost
who said he gave Mr. Makanjuola and other federal lawmakers a gratification to
the tune of N50 million.
Mr. Mbonu,
whose firm received the N3.5 billion as “consultancy payment” from NGF, worked
at the defunct Societe Generale Bank owned by Mr. Saraki’s family.
Similarly,
Tunde Morakinyo, who was named in the report as having allegedly conveyed money
for Mr. Saraki in 2014, was a longtime aide to the Senate President.
Past
assignments Mr. Saraki was believed to have engineered for Mr. Morakinyo
included recommending him as an aide to public officials from Kwara State so as
to keep tab on their activities and report back to his principal.
PT identified
Mr. Morakinyo as a front for Mr. Saraki in this newspaper’s Panama Papers
series published last year.
Mr. Morakinyo
helped Mr. Saraki conceal substantial amount of money in secret offshore tax
havens.
Mr. Saraki
also had a history with Dantani Abubakar, whom the EFCC identified as the
bureau de change operators whose services were engaged in the deal.
In December
2015, the State Security Service announced the arrest of its personnel who
allegedly robbed a bureau de change operator in Abuja of N310 million.
But the secret
police was silent on the identity of the victim.
SR later
identified Mr. Dantani as the owner of the fund and detailed how he allegedly
served as a regular money changer for Mr. Saraki.
Asides the
individuals named, the EFCC also said it established that parts of the N3.5
billion ended up in local and foreign bank accounts allegedly operated by Mr.
Saraki.
Big question
Although
detectives linked the principal actors to the Senate President, and showed how
parts of the money were distributed, they did not say why the NGF would pay Mr.
Saraki such an amount.
But they
clearly told President Buhari that the NGF paid Mr. Mbonu’s Melrose Services
N3.5 billion for onward disbursement to Mr. Saraki – not because the firm
rendered any service that was commensurate with such a large payout.
Investigators
now believe the money was intended as bribes to senators to stop any possible
legislative enquiry into the Paris Club loan refund.
Law
enforcement sources said the National Assembly has uncharacteristically kept
quiet about the Paris Loan refund despite the fact that it was not budgeted
for.
Some of the
sources said Mr. Makanjuola was assigned to distribute the money to senators.
In its report
about the bureau de change robber incident, SR said Makanjuola allegedly
coordinates Saraki’s bribe to lawmakers.
0 Comments