Minister Stole $6bn Under Jonathan's Gov't — Oshiomhole

 

There were more startling revelations yesterday about how one minister in the past government of President Goodluck Jonathan stole a staggering six billion dollars, according to Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo state.

 

The governor told State House correspondents that the disclosure came from US government officials who met them during the just concluded visit to America by President Muhamhadu Buhari.

 

Oshiomhole and the Kebbi State governor, Atiku Bagudu, as members of the APC governors forum, were at the Presidential Villa to brief the President on the outcome of a discussion held with APC senators the previous day.

 

Governor Oshiomhole on the president’s delegation to the US, alongside four other state governors.

 

“We have moved away from a president that doesn’t seem to know his powers, to one that understands that he is a president of the country”, the governor said in response to criticisms by the opposition against Buhari’s trip to the US.

 

Oshiomhole, “I always say that the day you see armed robbers clapping, you know that things are going wrong. When you see them frowning, you know that the security agencies are doing their best.

 

“PDP destroyed the country. I mean from the lips of American officials; senior officials of the state department. “They said one minister under PDP cornered as much as $6billion, and the man said even by Washington standards that is earth-quaking,” the governor said.

 

He said the country was being very patient with the Peoples Democratic Party, or else Nigerians will be stoning anyone carrying the badge of the party.

 

According to him, a party presided over the liquidation of the nation, destroyed all its institutions, converted the Armed Forces commanders and used them as if they were political thugs, converted the NTA to a party megaphone, destroyed the SSS, went after the opposition as if they were rabbits to be pursued into holes, compromised even student unions and destroyed everything that you can think of; elevated religion to a state affair; Israel became a place you visit.

 

He  added that every week, they played pastors against mallams, played North against South, East against West, just to retain power; elevated Obas and Obis with dollars, ensured NNPC was spending much more money than was available to the Federation Account.

 

He said, “we are a very patient people. If we were not a patient people, anybody wearing the tag of PDP ought to feel very unsafe because you are all victims- all of us here”.

 

Oshiomole further noted that under the PDP, there was no law and that they were the law unto themselves.

 

The governor said “according to the American officials, they were just confused. The Nigerian former president didn’t know what the issues were and everybody was frustrated”.

 

Recalling a chat with the US Assistant Secretary of State, Johnnie Carson, on the difference between the two administrations, Oshiomhole said the former had told him that “each time they thought that there was light at the end of the tunnel for Nigeria and it was time to encourage them to build on it, you we would wake up the following day under president Jonathan to find out that even the tunnel had been removed”.

 

“Now last week, this same Carson chaired the president’s address at the institute of peace. And he said  ‘we now have a man of enormous integrity; one that has shown so much faith in the democratic process; one that refused to be frustrated even in the face of massively rigged elections.

 

“America now has a partner worthy of relations because they believe that every dollar that America provides to support Nigeria, whether in the area of security, in the area of education, or encouraging American investors to invest in Nigeria, there is an enabling environment because what had been destroying the country is corruption.

 

“You have so much capital outflow; so, America is ready to stand side by side to support this president to achieve his core objective of fighting corruption, restoring security, creating jobs and redistributing prosperity’.

 

According to him,  “if PDP doesn’t condemn the US trip, then they are no longer PDP. Don’t forget, ‘people deceiving people’ has been a way of life for 16 years” he added.

 

Credit: businessdayonline.com