Former President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime returned looted public funds recovered by the Panel for the Recovery of Public Property to politicians and their cronies who stole from the nation’s treasury.
This was revealed by the former chairman of the panel Okoi Obono-Obla, during a chat on “Mic On” podcast. He added that his efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice were thwarted by officials of the Buhari administration, including former Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
“Some of the things I recovered were returned to the looters. For instance, there was this case of someone from whom I recovered over 80 brand new X-class Mercedes Benz cars (armoured plated) from Jabi, Abuja,” Obono-Obla said.
“I wrote to the DG, Customs to ask if the person paid customs duties of the vehicles, he said ‘No’, they didn’t pay. I wrote to the Federal Inland Revenue Services to know if the person paid tax on the vehicles; he also said ‘No’ and that they don’t have the records.
“We went to court to get an order of interim forfeiture, and it was granted pending the hearing of the case. So, I sent a memo to Malami to brief him on what we were doing, only for him to tell me that he never mandated me to do things I investigated.
“Another one is the case of a senator who was then in his sitting status and later became the President of the Senate.
“I found his story in the Panama Papers, which stated that he had property in offshore islands; I didn’t have the power to investigate him because it was overseas, so I went to the DG, NIA, and sought his help to work together.
“They conducted an investigation and sent the report to me. The report confirmed that this senator has over £200 million worth of property in the offshore islands; I sent a copy to the president and one to the Attorney General. Till today, nothing happened.”
He submitted that the Buhari regime paid lip service to fighting corruption.
” We didn’t do well fighting corruption. When Magu (former EFCC chairman) and I left, we didn’t hear anything again about fighting corruption. Both of us had a similar fate; we were stepping on toes and too stubborn. In fact, Malami’s close associate once told me, ‘You —Obla and Magu— are very stubborn.
“All the problems I had, Malami was behind them. The president wouldn’t have removed me without his input. He would joke to my wife if I had now recovered the billion dollars, I wanted to recover from the firm that mailed me.
“I was not dismissed, I was suspended and till date, the suspension has not been lifted.”
