I will investigate Sanusi’s missing $20bn claim –Buhari

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Firstclass newsline gathered that the president elect said his
government would investigate the claim by a former Governor of the
Central Bank of Nigeria and now the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II,
that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation failed to remit $20bn
oil money to the federation account.
The president elect gave the hint while receiving a delegation of the
All Progressives Congress elected officials and supporters from
Adamawa State at his campaign office in Abuja.
Buhari, who spoke in Hausa expressed surprise that instead of probing
the allegations by the former CBN governor, the Goodluck Jonathan-led
Peoples Democratic Party administration chose to fire him.
Buhari that since Sanusi's claim was documented, his administration
would take a look at it after the May 29 handover date.
Buhari said, "On the issue of corruption, I heard that some people
have started returning money. I will not believe it until I see for
myself.
"You all remember what the Emir of Kano talked about when he was the
governor of the CBN. He said $20bn not N20bn was unaccounted for; they
said it was a lie. Instead of investigating it, they sacked him. And
God in his infinite mercy made him the Emir of Kano. In any case, that
is what he wanted. And since this was documented, our administration
will take a look at it."
A management and accounting consultancy firm, PriceWaterHouse, was
last year hired by the Federal Government to carry out a forensic
audit of the NNPC following Sanusi's allegation.
Sanusi had written a letter to Jonathan in September 2013 that $49bn
was not remitted to the Federation Account by the NNPC.
But following the controversy generated by the letter, a committee was
set up by the government to reconcile the accounts of the corporation.
Sanusi later recanted and said the unremitted fund was $12bn. He later
changed the figure to $20bn.
PwC, in its report stated that while the total gross revenues
generated from crude oil liftings amounted to $69.34bn between January
2012 and July 2013 and not $67bn as earlier stated by the Senate
Reconciliation Committee, what was remitted to the federation account
was $50.81bn and not $47bn.
Within the $69.34bn, the audit report revealed that $28.22bn was the
value of domestic crude oil allocated to NNPC, adding that the total
amount spent on subsidy for Premium Motor Spirit amounted to $5.32bn.
The PwC report read in part, "Signature bonus, Petroleum Profit Tax
and Royalty yet to be paid by NPDC is $2.22bn. Total cash remitted
into the federation accounts in relation to crude oil liftings was
$50.81bn and not $47bn as earlier stated by the Senate Reconciliation
Committee for the period January 2012 to July 2013.
"Based on the information available to PwC, and from the above
analysis, the firm submitted that NNPC and NPDC should refund to the
federation accounts a minimum of $1.48bn."
Last week, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani
Alison-Madueke, disclosed that the NNPC had started refunding the
unremitted $1.48bn into the federation account.
But while expressing gratitude to the visiting delegation, Buhari said
his administration would work in tandem with the manifesto of the APC.
He listed priority areas to include security of lives and property,
the economy and job creation as well as the war against corruption.
On the issue of security, he described the menace of Boko Haram as
purely the evil of terrorism which has no link to religion.
Buhari said, " We thank God that it is now evident that this problem
of Boko Haram is not a religious problem. It is purely terrorism. I
said it earlier that all the religions we practise,especially Islam
and Christianity, do not support terrorism.
"So,anyone who goes and kills people in the mosque, church,
market, motor park or school either does not know whatAllahuakbar(God
is great) means or does not believe in it. This is terrorism. It is
our hope that God gives us the power to end this."
The former Head of State said that unemployment must be urgently
tackled because it constituted a threat to Nigeria's survival.
He explained that from his campaign stops in 35 out of the nation's 36
states, the sheer number of jobless youths they saw signposted clearly
that there was a serious crisis at hand.
Buhari said, "From the airports to the streets, we saw youths running
after our vehicles sweating. Some were walking the whole distance to
wherever we were driving to. Whether they went to school or did not go
to school, it was evident that they don't have jobs. This is one of
the biggest problems we have in Nigeria today.
"Most of our youths,who form 60 per cent of our population in Nigeria
are without jobs. These people who are still bubbling with energy will
constitute a danger to this nation if they don't get jobs."
The President-elect took a swipe at the outgoing Peoples Democratic
Party-led Federal Government for ''inflicting a lot of pains on
Nigerians with its misrule.''
He however said that the military deserved commendation for regaining
many territories it hitherto lost to Boko Haram in the North-East.
Buhari said, "Among the worst atrocities committed against Nigeria by
the PDP is what it has done to our military.
"It is our military that went to Burma; the same army that when I was
commissioned second lieutenant, I did not spend three weeks before I
found myself in Kinshasa (in Congo), then (the civil war) in Nigeria
and Sierra Leone and did well. Now to say Nigerian soldiers failed to
retake 14 local government areas out of 774 is unbelievable.
"For me who served in the military, I find it incomprehensible except
if I go there to find out what happened. The kind of leadership
brought upon us by the PDP whether it is documented or not, it can
never be forgotten in our history."
Buhari also decried the attitude of some Nigerian elite to the
suffering of the masses.
He noted that Some of them "have built houses outside their states so
that when trouble starts, they don't even bother to take their bags
before fleeing onAchaba(motorcycle).''
Buhari lamented the fate of some Nigerians from the North-East who
"do not know where their parents and children are because their houses
have been burnt in cities like Bama, Michika, Mubi, Madagali and other
places " by Boko Haram insurgents.
The President-elect appealed to members of the legislature at the
federal and state levels to give attention to matters that would
benefit the nation and its people in all their deliberations.
He promised that the incoming APC-led Federal administration was
determined to ensure that roads, schools and hospitals were built
and made functional.
Buhari described Adamawa State as one of the few states in the
North- East which still has arable land.
This, he said, was unlike his home state of Katsina where
desertification has condemned a lot of people without formal education
to a life of servitude.
Earlier, the leader of the delegation and governor-elect of Adamawa
State, Jibrilla Bindow, appealed to the President-Elect to help the
state rebuild its institutions and reduce poverty and youth
unemployment
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