Apart from cases involving cash, HEDA also documents cases of influential government officials using their seats to upturn justice favouring politically exposed individuals.
Nigeria’s anti-corruption group, Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), has raised the alarm over ignored top corruption cases worth ₦900 billion.
In a letter delivered to Buhari this week, the group warned that the country was sliding into the red light district of corruption and vice. HEDA Chairman, Mr Suraju Olanrewaju, signed the letter, titled “Re-Awakening the Anti Corruption Drive”.
“This only affects top corruption cases, yet we have many other smaller cases that have met institutional roadblocks,” HEDA said in the letter addressed to the President.
Mr Olanrewaju also alerted that corrupt people were taking over critical institutions undermining the country’s anti-corruption profile. They alleged that the volume of money linked to ignored corruption cases since 2015 when President Buhari assumed office was not less than ₦900b. The group regrets that self-appointed government gatekeepers have scuttled most of the investigations.
The timing of the letter coincides with the National Assembly’s confirmation of Abdulrasheed Bawa’s appointment as Nigeria’s new anti-corruption czar.
List of ‘ignored’ top corruption cases
Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo
Immediate Past Managing Director, Fidelity Bank Plc
Allegation: $115 million fund from former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
Mr Okonkwo during the 2015 General Elections was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for allegedly receiving $115 million in cash from a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
Mr Dauda Lawal
Former Executive Director, First Bank Plc
Allegation: $25m from a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
Mr Lawal was tried by the EFCC for allegedly handling the sum of $25m of $153m rolled out by Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former Minister of Petroleum Resources in Nigeria,
Mr Abdullahi Dikko
Former Comptroller General, Nigeria Customs
Allegation: ₦40 billion theft
The former Comptroller General of Customs was alleged to have stolen over N40 billion, who was asked to return N1.5 billion to the Federal Government.
Mr. Jonah Otunla
Former Accountant General of the Federation
Allegation: ₦6 billion graft
Mr Otunla, linked to a graft case, recently said he had made a refund of N6.39 billion to the Federation Account through the EFCC.
Others were the dubious payment of $16.9 million fees to two friends as new lawyers for recovering the loot traced to a former Nigerian Head of State, Sanni Abacha, after a Swiss lawyer hired and fully paid by the previous government, Enrico Monfrini.
Apart from cases involving cash, HEDA also documented instances of influence peddling involving top government officials who used their seats to upturn justice favouring politically exposed individuals.
The group listed officials interfering in investigating a multi-billion Naira fraud in Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NISRAL) through a letter ordering the EFCC and the ICPC, the DSS and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to halt investigating the financial misappropriation in NIRSAL.
Other interferences include:
Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina
Former Chairman, Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT)
Allegation: Plans for reinstatement in public service despite ongoing fraud-related legal proceedings
Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN)
Attorney General
Allegation: Discontinuation of N25 billion Naira criminal charge against Senator Danjuma Goje without any justification.
General Yusuf Buratai
Former Chief of Army Staff, Nigerian Army
Allegation: Illicit foreign assets
HEDA mentioned the allegation that the former Chief of Army Staff, General Yusuf Buratai, bought properties in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates using suspended corrupt means as the Nigerian Army’s Procurement Officer.
“We believe that the manner in which the above cases were handled, indirectly or directly, portray the Nigerian government and her mandate to eradicate corruption in a bad light in the global space,” HEDA wrote in the letter.
Suraju said beyond the return of the culture of impunity into governance and management of public resources, the few corrupt and compromised elements have taken over the reign of power in government and supplanted both institutions’ leadership and reversing the anti-corruption gain.