Former President Goodluck
Jonathan, his then defence
minister, Aliyu Gusau, former
Petroleum Minister, Diezani
Alison-Madueke and the
immediate past Chief of Naval
Staff, Usman Jubrin, an admiral,
may soon have to answer
questions on an alleged
N2.4billion house boats rent
scandal for the Nigerian Navy.
An ongoing investigation into the
conducts of officials of the
immediate past administration
indicate that Mr. Jonathan
instructed Mrs. Alison-Maduekwe
to release funds from the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation
to the defence chiefs to rent 13
House Boats to fight oil theft in
the Niger Delta.
The boats were hired for N2.4
billion, an amount experts believe
is more than enough for the
country to buy the boats outright.
Authoritative security sources
investigating alleged financial
misdeeds of the Jonathan
administration said their market
surveys showed the boats rented
for that princely sum could have
been acquired for keeps at
N100million each, bringing the
total cost to N1.3billion.
Our sources said the decision to
rent the boats was taken by the
former defence minister, Mr.
Gusau, and some of the recently
retired service chiefs without
seeking the advice of military
officers familiar with such
procurement, including those on
the ground in the Niger Delta
area, who were of the opinion
that the cost of renting the boats
was too high.
The funds to purportedly rent the
boat was released at about the
same time the federal government
controversially postponed the
presidential election from
February 14 to March 28.
Although the request for the
project was made in 2014, there
was a sudden rush to make
payment in mid-February this
year.
It is not however clear whether a
part of the money was used for
electioneering-related expenses at
a time “political cash” was ferried
around the country by some
contestants.
To kick off the transaction, Mr. Gusau initiated
a memo to Mr. Jonathan on October 16 last
year. Mr. Jonathan forwarded same to the
former Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-
Iweala.
In the memo, the former defence minister
argued that the deployment of the house
boats, under Operation Pulo Shield of the Joint
Task Force in the Niger Delta, had been
helpful in curbing oil theft and other criminal
activities.
But investigators are contesting that claim,
saying there was no significant drop in cases
of oil theft during the period.
In fact, a top security source said “the claim
that the use of the house boats checkmated oil
theft is just a lie because this was the same
period that oil theft increased”.
When the memo reached Mrs. Okonjo-
Iweala’s desk, she essentially agreed to the
procurement, but said there was no money
and asked that previous allocations to the
Nigerian Navy be spent on the project.
She gave the advice in a letter to the chief of
staff to Mr. Jonathan on January 7 this year.
That was about three months after the original
memo requesting the money was written by
Mr. Gusau.
Investigators say they are concerned that even
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala did not query what
appears an obvious waste of public funds or
question the procedure of the renting which
investigators argued was not in line with
Nigeria’s procurement regulations, even for
military spending.
By February, after the postponement of the
presidential election, there was a sudden rush
by officials to get funds released for the
procurement, investigators say.
On receiving the memo of the then finance
minister that the existing allocations to the
Navy be used to pay the rent, the former
president ignored the advice.
Instead he simply asked Mrs. Alison-Madueke
to pay the money to the Nigerian Navy as
requested, drawing from his “Security Vote”
in a secret NNPC account.
That was what he minuted on the memo on
February 16 this year.
On February 17, the former president’s Senior
Special Assistant for Administration sent a
memo to the then petroleum minister
conveying Mr. Jonathan’s approval for the
release of N2.4B to the accounts of the chief of
naval staff.
The NNPC subsequently paid the money on
March 12 this year to the Chief of Naval Staff
Operations Main Account number 1010560885
at Zenith Bank, Maitama, with sort code
057080015.
An NNPC source revealed that the money was
debited from the NNPC Joint Venture Cash Call
Pool account number 023-01571-41-13-4.
Investigators say the manner of release of the
funds, which was not appropriated, is another
proof that the former president and the
former petroleum minister probably kept
several secret NNPC accounts for sundry
purposes without any oversight or public
finance scrutiny.
“This was just a ploy to siphon public
resources as it is clear that the cost of
purchasing a House Boats was cheaper than
the cost of renting,” one of our sources, a
military insider, said.
Although Nigeria paid N2.4billion for renting
the 13 house boats for about a year, military
sources disclosed that the average cost of
renting the boats as indicated in military
records is merely N15million a month.
“This means that not only did it make more
sense to buy, even the cost of renting had
been overwhelmingly inflated,” one source
said.
Mr. Gusau could not be reached for comments
Thursday. He did not answer or return
multiple calls seeking comment.
Mr. Jonathan too could not be reached. A
spokesperson said the former president is
unwilling to speak on any issue concerning
his stewardship at this time.
All known telephone numbers for Mrs. Alison-
Madueke failed to connect Thursday.
Source: Premium Times
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