EFCC, PDP MEMBERS AND DASUKIGATE

Must READ....Brilliant writeup which might just get you really really upset or you might just agree....

Hello Stella,

You shared your thought in the post: EFCC Seizes Fani-Kayode's Passport, Detains Ex-Gov Yero yesterday and that prompted me to write this. I was thinking if it was possible for us to go a little further to provoke our thoughts on a follow up to the subject of the post. In that post, you ended with, 

“Sometimes I want to believe its a witch hunt but when the person agrees to collecting the money without knowing the source, I am left but to shut up. I dont know whether the former Minister is innocent or not, that will be left for a court to decide but what i learn from this and ask myself is ''should we pay for crimes we unconsciously commit?..He didnt know he was collecting looted money, doesnt that make him Innocent? #justmythoughts”.

Before delving into the intended subject, I would love to firstly point out that one thing that makes your blog different from many other major blogs is that,  sometimes you put up some interesting posts where you create an avenue for people to share their thoughts on important issues. In addition to that, you sometimes leave your readers with your view point, without pretending to be neutral like other bloggers. I might not agree with some of your view points, but it leaves me to adore your style. 

Back to the subject. On the issue of arrests and invitations (and other events leading to court cases) by the EFCC, I find one thing very shocking from the comments made by Nigerians (especially the youths) after the arrests of some prominent PDP figures such as Olisa Metuh, Fani-Kayode, Raymond Dokpesi among others. Prior and shortly after the arrest of Metuh by the EFCC, his party members, many internet-active youths and some people from his ethnic and geopolitical region were shouting and angry that his arrest was because of him speaking against the present administration. They claim that, in an attempt to silence him, the Federal Government under the APC made allegation of corruption against him, etc. If I could suggest that we take a look at the subject from a different angle.  

Only yesterday, Mr. Colet Odenigbo, a defence witness for Metuh during trial before the Federal High Court in Abuja admitted that N400 Million Naira was received by Metuh from the office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) where Dasuki headed. It was given to him for the political campaign of the PDP. According to how it was reported on Vanguard Newspaper yesterday, it said, “The witness, who was a former US Naval Officer and a consultant to the office of the PDP National Publicity Secretary, said he accompanied Metuh to meet with a panel of the ONSA, where it was agreed that N400m be given to him to fund the party’s campaign activities for the 2015 general election.”

In today’s paper still by Vanguard, it is reported that Doyin Okupe, former Special Assistant to Goodluck Jonathan on media testified in the same High Court in Abuja that the former president “instructed the payment of N400 million to Olisa Metuh”. According to Okupe, he claimed that the payment was made through Metuh’s Destra Investment Company. All the money was reported to be given to Metuh in preparation for the 2015 presidential election from the National Security Adviser’s office.

From the two witnesses above and proofs available to the EFCC, Metuh is accused to have collected the sum of N400 million from the office of the NSA to fund the election of the former president and the payment was made to Metuh by the instruction of Goodluck Jonathan. The interesting thing is Metuh has not denied this accusation.

The questions now are, what is wrong in arresting and charging Olisa Metuh to court for taken money from the office of the NSA to fund the election of Goodluck Jonathan? Is it witch-hunting to charge him to court for criminally and illegally taking money meant for the purchase of arms and ammunition to fight insurgents who have wasted the lives of thousands and made millions homeless? Why are our youths wasting their hard-earned to pay for  MTN, Etisalat, Glo data to stand up in support and defence of people stealing billions of Naira of Nigerian people’s money thereby making them suffer and die in penury? 

When has it become our responsibility to defend people who have stolen our national cake? Why are the children of Metuh, Fani-Kayode, Dokpesi among others not going to the internet and other social media to defend their fathers? The obvious reason is because their children are busy enjoying the millions illegally transferred into the accounts of their parents in mansions in Abuja, Lagos and expensive houses and schools abroad. The children of these men and women are there laughing at these suffering masses defending the corruption of their fathers and mothers and laughing at the stupidity of these youths wasting their data, time and lives to defend these corrupt people.

Since the release of Metuh from EFCC cell, we have not heard much noise from him, if at all any. Have we bothered to ask why? Of course, he knows that the EFCC’s charge against him is very correct and cannot run away from his involvement in the squandering of the $2 Billion stolen arms and ammunition money. Metuh is one out of many other political elites making the Nigerian populace suffer. The same was the case of Dokpesi. Immediately he was invited by EFCC, people were quick to stand in his defence and claim that he was being witch-hunted because of his involvement in the role he played in the defamation of President Buhari on his AIT channel. But one interesting thing people ignored was, Dokpesi himself did not deny receiving over N2 billion from the office of the National Security Adviser as payment for the airing of election campaign materials for the former president. 

Yet our poor youth came out in defence of Dokpesi, who is busy enjoying part of the N2 billion Naira paid into his account with his family. Sadly, our youth are not asking why Dokpesi and his management collected payment for election campaign for PDP from the office of the National Security Adviser. How is this witch-hunting?

For God sake, these people are not denying the receipt of these monies. They have admitted to have received these monies. Some have refunded part (or all) of the money. Some have their cases in court. Some are claiming that they did not know the source of the money. What a silly argument! When they got alerts, did they not know where it came from? When they sat to have meetings on what and what will be done with these monies, did they not discuss where the monies were coming from?

I am not surprised why people like Fani-Kayode were so quick to come out to claiming that they did not know where the monies were coming from or that they asked very well to ascertain where and who was giving them the money. Another silly argument! Why should campaign money be transferred into their private accounts? Why should Fani-Kayode start making clarification long before he was even invited for his role in the squandering of campaign funds? I think it is just the case of a guilty person trying to vindicate himself from a criminal act. They say a clear mind fears no accusation. Fani-Kayode should have waited for the time to come before going online to vindicate himself of his involvement in the squandering of arms money used for political campaign. 

He knew his turn was going to come so, in order to paint himself like a saint, he started by castigating the present government so that by the time he would be invited and arrested, it would be said that he was arrested because he was speaking openly against the present government.

On the question of why are PDP members the only ones charged. Well, the Federal Government was under the PDP government, not APC. PDP controlled the ministries, boards, parastatals, etc. It wasn’t the APC government. Some would ask, why are they not questioning Tinubu, etc? Well, Yar’Adua and Jonathan were in power yet did not send EFCC to get Tinubu. Why did that happened? I am not claiming that APC party stalwarts and members are saints or were never involved in corrupt practices. However, I think it is irrational to say that, we should leave PDP members who obviously stole monies from the coffers of the Nigerian people as long as we were not going to go after APC members who also stole money. Is it not better to get some from these thieves than getting nothing at all?

We are seeing these much revelations only from monies illegally squandered from the office of the National Security Adviser. They have not started on NNPC, Ministry of Works, Transport, etc. We should wait and see how things go. The present administration is still young. Time will tell. Witch-hunting or not, people have stolen money, many of them have admitted, and we want them to refund these monies back to where they were taken.

However, my pity is for poor Nigerians who have been blinded with ethnic sentiments, religious bigotry, irrational and uncritical thinking by corrupt political elites thereby making them unable to see the sufferings that they are going through or remove themselves from the shackles of intellectual slavery. It is high time you all opened your eyes to see things the way they should be. When these men and women steal our monies, they do not think of us. They only think of themselves and families. They leave us and our children to suffer.

I pray that God punish those evil people who suggested and advised the former president, Goodluck Jonathan to instruct and approve the use of monies meant for arms and ammunitions to fight against insurgency in the North-East that has left thousands dead and millions homeless for his election campaign. Jona no try at all.

This is my thought.

BY Abubakar Abdulkadir