Buhari Begins Total Probe of Jonathan and His People

A total probe of the administration of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is underway as the National Economic Council, NEC, Ad-hoc Committee on the Management of Excess Crude Account Proceeds and Accruals into the Federation Account, headed by the Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, is bringing in two international forensic audit firms to probe revenue that accrued into the Federation Account and how it was spent under Jonathan as President.

“We have learned, we have listened and asked questions. I think we all have a clear picture of what is happening in those organizations before now. Some have information to supply and we have drawn attention to those areas, they are willing to oblige. We believe in the end, we will be able to not just establish what had happened over the period but much more important, going forward with the changes the President has promised the country."

Oshiomhole told journalists at the end of the first meeting of the committee in Abuja, the audit would cover the period January 1, 2010 to June 1, 2015.

It put paid to calls by the opposition PDP that Buhari should extend his probe to the administrations of all the predecessors of Jonathan, Alh. Umaru Yar’ Adua and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

Already, some revenue generating agencies have been invited to brief the committee which will take detailed briefings from Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Federal Government who deal with revenue.

The focus will be on the NNPC, the Nigeria Customs Service, the CBN, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, among others.

Other members of the committee included Gov. Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai of Kaduna State, Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe, and Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom.

Speaking further, Oshiomhole said, “We held our first primary session today here with some of the revenue generating agencies that are supposed to remit funds to the federation account. We had a successful session with Customs, NPA, NEITI, SEC, FIRS, and quite a number of others and next week we will also hear from CBN, Ministry of Finance, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.

"For the remaining ones, we agree we are going to meet on Thursday next week... We have started the work, with the idea to hear them out, what they have been doing, with particular emphasis on revenue accruing from these organizations and whether or not these have been remitted to the Federation Account for judicious distribution.

“We realised that this is a task and given our mandate, even if we were professional accountants because we are sitting governors, we would not have the time to do a forensic audit which this assignment entails.

“Therefore, we have agreed in line with our mandate to appoint two reputable international audit firms to carry out a thorough forensic audit, not only of NNPC, which is more of excess crude, but other monies that accrued to the Federation Accounts. We have other revenues like bonuses, royalties, taxes, VAT that flow into the Federation Account.

“We are taking a holistic review of the entire process, looking at all the agencies that make contribution of funds to the federation account...

“It is not going to be business as usual. He started on a clean slate and everybody knows the new rules of the game and in particular as the laws apply to the various institutions are implemented in full. So I think we started very well. We are very confident that we are going to come out with something that is going to be of immense benefits to the Nigerian people”.