Following a statement attributed to the EFCC chairman Ibrahim Magu that between 2011 and 2015 32 entities looted N1.3trillion, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan - who was then Nigeria's President has in a statement released by his former aide Reno Omokri - has dismissed this as false. Below is the full statement:


Just days after the United States Department released a report which established that massive corruption remains rife under the Buhari administration, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, has come out with a very incongruous riposte, intended to divert the attention of the public from the damning report.Ibrahim Magu, as usual, sought to drag the name of former President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan into the mix and blame him for this latest in a series of negative verdicts on the current administration’s anti-graft war.Speaking at a programme in Lagos on Monday the 25th of March, 2019, the EFCC boss alleged, without producing any shred of evidence, that “N1.3 trillion was stolen between 2011 and 2015 … by 32 entities, including private individuals and organisations."



This is strange because Magu was expected to have used the forum to address the issues of impunity raised in the U.S. State Department report which directly indicted leaders of the anti-corruption crusade by emphatically noting, among other things, that “there is a climate of impunity in the President Muhammadu Buhari government that allows officials to engage in corrupt practices with a sense of exemption from punishment”.The claim of a stolen N1.3 trillion public fund which Magu reiterated on Monday is not new, for the discerning members of the public, the claim by Magu is rehash of false allegations that started its ill-fated journey in 2016.In January 2016, Muhammadu Buhari’s prophetically named Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai (Lie) Mohammed, claimed at a world press conference in Abuja, to mark the beginning of the administration’s war against corruption, that 55 well-placed Nigerians stole a whopping N1.34 trillion between 2006 and 2013, a period covering the Presidencies of Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan.


"Nine months later, specifically in October 2016, the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Professor Itse Sagay repeated the allegation with only a slight alteration, by alleging that about N1.4 trillion was stolen by top government officials and businessmen under the last three administrations.It will be recalled that in July 2015, Adams Oshiomhole, the current chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), had alleged that a former government minister in Nigeria stole $6bn (about N2.1 trillion). Oshiomhole said “US officials informed President Muhammadu Buhari of the alleged theft during his visit to Washington the previous month.”


"However, the U.S. State Department denied the story, asking Oshiomhole, to name the official and not drag United States into Nigeria domestic politics.The truth is that Ibrahim Magu lied and this is not the first, or second time he has lied to the public.It would be recalled that Mr. Magu has boasted on many occasions that the EFCC under him had recovered about N739 billion within two years, adding that over N500 billion was recovered in 2017 alone.However, Kemi Adeosun, the then minister of finance in the same Government at that time, decided to put a lie to Mr. Magu’s claims, by revealing in March 2018 that contrary to all the figures provided over time by the EFCC’s acting chairman, Ibrahim Magu, only N91 billion of such claims could be accounted for by the Government.


"So, instead of relying on wild and unsubstantiated allegations, I would advise Mr. Magu to focus on some facts, like the following:
According to Transparency International, Nigeria is more corrupt today than at anytime during the five-year period of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s time in office.


Whereas under Jonathan and the PDP, Nigeria made her best ever improvement on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, moving 8 places forward from 144 to 136 in 2014, but under President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress, Nigeria has made her worst ever retrogression, moving backwards 12 places from 136 to 148. This is a fact.



It is also a fact that under the Muhammadu Buhari administration arranged the recall, reinstatement and double promotion of Abdulwasiu Maina, the biggest ever thief in Nigeria’s civil service history and even gave him armed guards.



It is also a fact under the Muhammadu Buhari administration, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation awarded $25 billion worth of contracts without due process. To put this in perspective, that money can pay 1 million Nigerians the proposed new minimum wage of ₦30,000 for 4 years. This is a fact.



Moreover, it is a fact that renowned entertainer, Mr. Charles Oputa, AKA Charly Boy, recently revealed that the spokesman for the Muhammadu Buhari re-election campaign, Mr. Festus Keyamo, paid him a nine-figure sum (at least one hundred million Naira), to attack the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the February 2019 Presidential elections.



The question Mr. Magu should answer is where did Festus Keyamo get so much money that he carelessly throws around?



Finally, Nigerians saw clear evidence via drone imagery that bullion vans carted cash to the home of the National Leader of the All Progressive Congress, Senator Bola Tinubu, 48 hours to the Presidential election.



Mr. Tinubu even boasted on live television that the bullion vans carried money and that it is nobody’s business. This is even as the Money
Laundering Act of 2011 makes it illegal for any individual to make cash payments exceeding Five Million Naira. And provides that every cash transaction over ₦5,000,000 must be done via a financial institution. ‪


These are the types of characters surrounding President Buhari. Characters that you will not trust with even your dog.



One had expected that all these remonstrations from the US State Department among with the facts listed above would prompt Mr. Magu to change his politically-influenced blame game approach and adopt a more professional strategy.



Sadly, that was not to be.


To have simply repackaged the fable of the missing N1.3 billion at this time, shows that the EFCC boss probably thinks that Nigerians are a bunch of people with no retentive memory.



Magu should realize that his credibility and that of the agency he leads should derive from the attention he gives to objectivity, professionalism and hard evidence. It is rather unfortunate that Magu chose to enmeshed state institution such as the EFCC into partisan politics, thereby prioritizing propaganda, deceit, half-truth and hearsay as the organization’s strategy of governance. Enough! Nigerians want to hear something new, good news, tales of hope, and not this rehash of poorly articulated fables like corruption fighting back and non-existing folklores of people who stole in an unknown year.


Reno Omokri (For Dr. Goodluck Jonathan)


https://enewsnigeria.com/jonathan-blasts-buhari-nigeria-is-more-corrupt-now-than-during-my-5-year-term/

Hmmmm...

I don't know how much truth is there in Magu's claim, but I am absolutely sure that Buhari's administration does not have the luxury of losing over a trillion naira to corruption, where did the money come from? Is it from crude oil whose value has been going south since 2014?

For once i think i agree with GEJ here cos the same corruption we chased him out for hasn't stopped or even decreased so who is deceiving who in this country now

Sirjamo:
I don't know how much truth is there in Magu's claim, but I am absolutely sure that Buhari's administration does not have the luxury of losing over a trillion naira to corruption, where did the money come from? Is it from crude oil whose value has been going south since 2014?

Typical zombie reasoning. Keep looking for where the money comes from while they are looting and putting the country in standby mode.

this guy is jokin,right....??

By the time PMB steps down and his malfeasances meticulously tabulated, Nigerians will themselves canonize GEJ a 'SAINT'. Take that to the BANK!!!

Foolish man always on ogogoro

Go and sit down

very true.Magu playing to his pay masters game.We pay your chinese suppliers instantly with wechat alipay account.

yarimo:
Foolish man always on ogogoro

Daft you always on drugs

Buhari means curruption,, that is why everything about him is under the stream of curruption. Will Nigeria survive this?

udemzyudex:


Typical zombie reasoning. Keep looking for where the money comes from while they are looting and putting the country in standby mode.

Your brain is your pride, always use it

true talk

ebuk4real:


By the time PMB steps down and his malfeasances are tabulated, Nigerians will themselves canonize GEJ a 'SAINT'. Take that to the BANK!!!

You are a wise man.
More oil revenues, higher budgets, increased loans, hiked fuel price, stagnant minimum wage yet there are no jobs and we overtook India’ 1.5 billion people to become the extreme poverty capital of the world.
The looting and stashing abroad by Buhari and his APC cabal will make Saint Abacha jealous.

My own is the bullions vans that were spotted driving into Tinubu resident, and no one in the supposed government of integrity is asking questions... Reno make some salient points but as usual, Buharists will come online to Insult him.

I was about to say “This is Reno replying not GEJ”, then I read on....

Reno will keel over and die soon of a heart attack over this Buhari matter. People don’t know, but, he has run completely mad with hate, it’s hard for him to think or react rationally on certain topics.

Someone was defending Tinubu... My question is do you need two bullion vans to transport 100 bundles of 50,000 naira?

Tell mai gworo please

Can't enact developing policies just blame games

After 4 years as president
Former head of state
Former minister of petroleum
Former governor of northeast
Former head of ptdf
Miyetti patron
Designated boko haram negotiator

Watch how yellowbars will rush here and start defending buhari.

They betrayed our bother just because of vp position.


We south south are waiting to see how their Osibanjo will be president come 2023.

This very govt remains the most useless, senile ans corrupt govt ever to have ruled Nigeria. It has no Comparative in corruption! Gandujegate alone has rubbished any achievement they may have claimed to have made.

How do you even side a president that raised the hands of a rogue ganduje caught on camera, endorsing and forcing him on the people for a second term?...

Oga Jona, go and sit down. You legalized Corruption during your tenure with you Goat and Yam theory.

That is why govt keeps recovering the billions looted by your wife abi Mumu oshi

Amazing

Very true

Watch how zombies avoid dis thread like a plague.

Abeg buhari pay FG staff our March salary normally... Cos we know minimum wage is a scam... The new committee will drag it till May... Den another committee will drag it till October... We know d gimmick...

ebuk4real:


By the time PMB steps down and his malfeasances meticulously tabulated, Nigerians will themselves canonize GEJ a 'SAINT'. Take that to the BANK!!!

We knew corruption was going on in GEJ regime while he was still in power, if you don't know anything of such going on in PMB tenure then it isn't there.

asfrank:

We knew corruption was going on in GEJ regime while he was still in power, if you don't know anything of such going on in PMB tenure then it isn't there.

Wait till he steps down, then you can reply me..