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| Former President Goodluck Jonathan |
The President’s Special Adviser on Media
and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, who stated this in Abuja on Friday,
also explained that there was no secret pact between President Buhari
and Jonathan to exclude the ex-President from the list of corrupt people
to be probed by this administration.
There have been calls by prominent
Nigerians, including the Senate Leader, Senator Ali Ndume, that Buhari
should authorise the EFCC to probe and prosecute Jonathan. Ndume had said, “Nobody is supposed to
be above the law. If Jonathan is a culprit, he should face the law. If
there is evidence that the former President should face the law, then,
he should. After all, he is presumed innocent until proven guilty.”
Adesina told Saturday PUNCH that
the Presidency had given the anti-corruption body a free hand to
investigate and try anybody involved in corrupt practices. He said that
the President was not interested in teleguiding the anti-graft agency. Saturday PUNCH had asked
Adesina if the EFCC would need the permission of the President before
probing Jonathan. He was also asked to react to an allegation that
Buhari had been reluctant to grant permission to the EFCC to investigate
Jonathan. In his response, Adesina said, “The President does not teleguide the EFCC in any way.”
Also, the Presidency on Friday said that
Buhari did not sign any pact with former President Goodluck Jonathan or
any past President, exempting them from being probed. The Senior Special Assistant to the
President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, disclosed this in an
exclusive interview with one of our correspondents. Shehu said that being an open person,
Buhari would never go into a secret pact with anybody, especially
concerning his administration’s ongoing anti-graft war.
He said that anything could be expected in the ongoing anti-graft war, which he described as “open-ended”.
The presidential spokesman said, “There is no secret pact between President Buhari and any past President.
“If you know or understand him,
President Buhari is not the kind of person who will go into secret
agreements. He is open about everything he does.
“The war against corruption is open-ended. Nobody knows how it will end.”
Shehu, however, ruled out the possibility that Buhari might have been on a witch hunt in his fight against graft. He said government’s position is that
former government officials can return their loots in order to escape
investigation and trial. He also declared that the current administration’s war against corruption knows neither friend nor foe. He said, “But the President is not on a
witch hunt. If you remember his acceptance speech after being announced
as the winner of the 2015 general elections, he said without any
equivocation that he would not victimise or subject anyone to witch
hunt.
“One thing very clear from the way he
has carried on with the war against corruption is that past officials of
government have a window to return looted funds to avoid investigation
and trials which may be drawn out and sometimes inimical to the
exercise.
“People can help themselves and help the country without being noisy about anything.
“The President is aware that he is under watch, locally and internationally, in his handling of the war against corruption.
“Whatever international support he will
get will depend on how open and effective his government is in carrying
out the anti-graft war.
“To that extent, the war against corruption knows neither friend nor foe.”
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the EFCC had been under pressure to summon the former president over investigations into the $2.1bn arms probe.
It was learnt that the commission had
already compiled statements by suspects arrested over the arms probe and
some of them required the invitation of the former president to make
clarifications. It was gathered that the Jonathan issue
had been discussed at a high level of the Buhari administration and the
signal or the body language the commission was getting from the
government was that investigations should not be extended to the former
President for now.
No instruction not to probe Jonathan—EFCC
But the spokesperson for the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said he could not confirm if Jonathan would be arrested or not. Uwujaren said it was not the habit of
the commission to announce when it would arrest anybody and that its
investigations were usually discreet.
The EFCC spokesman said, “I can’t speak
on that (Jonathan’s arrest). We don’t announce ahead of time if people
are to be arrested.” When asked if it was true that the EFCC
had been instructed not to investigate Jonathan, Uwujaren said, “I don’t
respond to speculations. Who will give us that kind of instruction? Is
there someone that gives us instructions on which case to investigate or
not?”
In practice, the EFCC needs Buhari’s approval —Sagay
However, the Chairman, Presidential
Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), said in
theory, the EFCC did not need the approval or permission of the
President to arrest anyone since the commission had been empowered by an
Act. But, he said in practice, the anti-graft agency would need to inform the President.
He said it would be necessary because of
the sensitivity of such an arrest, adding that Nigeria’s democracy had
never witnessed the arrest of a former President before. Sagay said, “The law is clear. There is
no such limitation on the part of the EFCC under the EFCC Act. If anyone
has committed any offence relating to economic and financial crimes,
such a person can be investigated and if there is evidence, the person
can be prosecuted. The law is clear that no presidential permission is
needed.
“But we are talking of a former head of
state here and I think it will be extremely imprudent of the EFCC to
just go and knock on his door and detain him. Definitely, it is my
personal view that there is a protocol. My personal view is that the
EFCC will need clearance from the President himself if the commission
needs to arrest a former President.”
Many of the suspects arrested in
relation to the arms probe had at one time or the other, claimed that
they received express or indirect approval from former President. For instance, the National Publicity
Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olisa Metuh, who is
being prosecuted by the anti-graft agency for allegedly receiving N400m
from the Office of the former National Security Adviser, allegedly used
the money to fund Jonathan’s campaign. Metuh, who filed a no-case submission
through his lead counsel, Mr. Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), argued that the
EFCC should have called Jonathan as a witness but the commission
rejected the advice.
Similarly, the former Aide-de-Camp to
the ex-President, Col. Ojogbane Adegbe, who was arrested in connection
with an alleged N10bn given to chieftains of the Peoples Democratic
Party, said he only ‘delivered parcels on the instruction of Jonathan.’
He also told EFCC operatives that as a
serving military officer, he was bound by his oath of commission into
the Nigerian Armed Forces and would not divulge official secrets which
he swore to keep but the anti-graft agency never invited Jonathan.
Also, a former Chairman of Daar
Communications, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, who is also being prosecuted by
the anti-corruption agency for receiving N2.1bn through the ONSA, was
said to have collected the money on the instruction of Jonathan.
In an open letter dated December 6,
2015, the Dokpesi family said the N2.1bn was indeed for a proposal by
Daar Investment and Holdings Company Ltd to “promote and project the
achievements and highlight the challenges of his (Jonathan’s) government
whilst demystifying false information gleefully circulated by the
propaganda machinery of the then opposition party.”
The proposal, the family said, was
submitted to Jonathan in person by Dokpesi and his team in the presence
of former Vice-President Namadi Sambo, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The former National Security Adviser,
Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), accused of diverting $2.1bn meant for the
procurement of arms, also claimed he had received Jonathan’s approval.
Similarly, a former Executive Director
of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Aminu Baba-Kusa, in his
statement of witness filed in the High Court of the Federal Capital
Territory, said N2.2bn was spent on prayers to hasten the defeat of Boko
Haram, adding that the money, which was received through the ONSA was
approved by the Jonathan-led Federal Government.
Credit: PUNCH
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