WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-08-02 Time: 12:00:02 Posted By: News Poster
By Onyeka Onwenu
Abuja – Aso Rock may have dropped the idea of probing of the $12.4billion oil windfall which critics claim was misappropriated by the military regime of Ibrahim Babangida, one of the grounds on which they want his fresh presidential bid quashed.
Opponents of Babangida, including 10 civil society organisations, are urging the government to set up an Administrative Panel to probe the allegation, expectant of a guilty verdict that would end the presidential bid of the general. The man has denied any wrong doing, and challenged critics to substantiate their claims of corruption against him.
The activists had written Federal Attorney General and Justice Minister, Muhammed Adoke, urging him to try Babangida over the alleged looting of the oil windfall, citing the Prof. Pius Okigbo Committee’s report which they claimed indicted the general.
The Minister then asked the activists to forward to him a copy of the Okigbo report and pledged to prosecute Babangida if found culpable – a request the activists have since honoured when they sent the report to Adoke.
Sunday Independent reported recently that the Minister had set up a committee, chaired by the Solicitor-General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary in the Justice Ministry, Abdulahi Ahmed Yola, to work on the report and determine whether Babangida was indicted.
But investigations by Sunday Independent show that nothing has been heard or done since the Yola Committee was set up, and it is unclear if the committee has submitted any report.
Efforts to get Adoke to react to inquiries failed as he has consistently dodged appointments he fixed with Sunday Independent.
The civil rights campaigners had in a letter to the Minister, dated April 7, threatened to go to court to compel Adoke to make the report public as well as try Babangida, lamenting that since the report was submitted to the Sani Abacha administration on August 29, 1994, successive governments have refused to act on the report.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo claimed the report could not be found.
The groups wrote: “To date, the report has not been released to the public, and no government’s White Paper has been adopted on the report. We are writing to request you to urgently and fully implement the recommendations of the late Dr. Pius Okigbo Panel Report, which indicted former military President, General Ibrahim Gbadamosi Babangida (rtd) over allegations of corruption and mismanagement of $12.4 1991 Gulf oil windfall by ensuring his immediate and fair prosecution. However, we are now in possession of the report, which we are enclosing with this letter.
“We are human rights non-governmental organisations whose mandates include the promotion of transparency and accountability in the public and private sectors through human rights. According to the Okigbo Panel set up by the late Gen. Sani Abacha in 1994 to probe how the $12.4 billion oil windfall earned by the nation during the first Gulf War in 1991 was spent, the Babangida administration operated ‘a second but undisclosed budget’ with the then Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, the late Alhaji Abdulkadir Ahmed. The Okigbo report also stated that the operations of these accounts were fraught with irregularities. According to the report, the proceeds of the sale of the crude were not shown in the revenue side nor were the expenditures reflected in the expenditure side of the budget.
“The report also frowned at the manner and method of disbursing the oil windfall through a ‘Dedicated Accounts.’ The report said that the dedicated accounts, which consisted of NNPC sales of mining rights, signature bonds and stabilisation, received a total of $12.4 billion, out of which $12.2 billion was disbursed leaving a balance of $206.037 million. The accounts were operated outside the national budgets and therefore not open to auditing. The panel also criticised the way and manner the funds were spent, noting that they could have been put to better use, either to reduce the national’s external debt stock or put in the external reserves so as to ease the pressure on the nation’s currency, the naira, which was depreciating at the foreign exchange market.
“We are concerned that the continuing failure and/or refusal by successive governments to prosecute those involved in the mismanagement of $12.4 billion constitutes a serious breach of Nigeria’s international anti-corruption obligations and commitments including under the UN Convention against Corruption. Under the Convention, Nigeria has a legal responsibility to guarantee victims of corruption an effective investigation and prosecution as a remedy for violations implicating human rights, including economic and social rights,” they stated.
“Acting President Goodluck Jonathan recently said that, “the policy of this administration remains a zero tolerance of corruption. Therefore, demonstrable accountability must not only be done but be seen to have been done. In this regard, we will not hesitate to take whatever action necessary to protect the bond of trust, which must always exist between the government and the governed.”
The letter was jointly signed by Adetokunbo Mumuni, Executive Director, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP); Joseph Otteh, Executive Director, Access to Justice (AJ); Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center (CISLAC); Kayode Ogundamisi, Convener, Nigeria Liberty Forum, London; Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, Executive Director, Women Advocates and Documentation Center (WARDC); Olanrewaju Suraju, Head, Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA); Olasupo Ojo, President, Committee for Defence of Human Rights (CDHR); Itoro Eze-Anaba, Managing Partner, Partnership for Justice; Moshood Erubami, President, Nigeria Voters Assembly (VOTAS); and Tejumade Oke, Programme Director, Centre for the Rule of Law.
Original date published: 31 July 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201008020687.html?viewall=1