Former VP Atiku Abubakar took to his website today to
address his involvement in the alleged mismanagement of the
Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) during his
time in office as the Vice President of Nigeria.
In 2006, the former VP was indicted in a Special Forensic
investigation over mismanagement and alleged diversion of
funds meant for the PTDF. He said he decided to address it
today after one of his followers raised the corruption
allegations on twitter. Find his response below...
I was recently mentioned in a tweet by a follower,
@naigerian, who was asking about alleged mismanagement of
PTDF funds. For the benefit of @naigerian and other
citizens of Nigeria, I will explain how the PTDF was
designed to work, and what happened during my time in
office. Continue...
In order to understand the issue of the PTDF, I should point
out that the laws establishing PTDF was designed such that
the fund itself could not be directly spent. The PTDF as a
fund could only be drawn from profits accruing to that fund. I
did approve the placement of $145 million dollars in
commercial banks in order to accrue the required interest,
which could then be used for PTDF projects. The approval of
these funds followed due process.
When I was accused of PTDF mismanagement (i.e putting it in
private banks to accrue interest), the funds & accrued
interests were returned to CBN intact. Not a penny was lost
from that money. However, a report was prepared by the
EFCC, under pressure from the president, and presented to
the FEC, without any response/evidence from myself or
witnesses.
It is pertinent to note that this report was also put together,
following my outcry over N20b requested from the PTDF by
the president, which I discovered was being used to fund
the third term push.
On November 28, 2008, Justice Inumidun Akande of the
Lagos High Court established that the EFCC was wrong, and
quashed the EFCC report, showing that I did no wrong, as
accused by the EFCC, which was doing the bidding of a
president who was bent on smearing my name, despite having
no evidence.
The following news reports is hereby quoted:
“Nov. 28, 2006: Court Quashes EFCC Report on
PTDF: Justice Inumidun Akande, Lagos High Court declared:
“… “There is no evidence before the court to establish that the
applicant (former Vice President Atiku Abubakar) was allowed
to call witnesses to testify on his behalf to defend the
allegation… instead, the 2nd Respondent prepared a report in
which he indicted the applicant and others and submitted it to
the President (Obasanjo) as if he was the High Court before
which the offenders will be prosecuted, establishes lack of
fairness.”
In her judgment, on Nov. 28, 2006, Justice Inumidun Akande
of Lagos High Court nullified both the EFCC report and the
Administrative Panel of Inquiry report, which indicted former
Vice President Atiku Abubakar.”
The Senate also disagreed with the EFCC report, on may
counts. One that stuck out was that having accused me of
placing funds in private banks, there was no investigation of
the president’s placement of funds in UBA, as well
as authorisation of loans to UBA from PTDF. The president
later borrowed N200m from UBA to purchase Transcorp
shares, which was also a conflict of interest.
My question has always been: why would a fund that needs to
accrue interest be lodged in the CBN? Government should be
run like a business. PTDF funds were better kept in private
banks, where they could accrue interest.
The PTDF accusation was brought against me because I spoke
out against diversion of same funds for the third term
agenda, and it is a shame the EFCC was used to prosecute that
vendetta. I believe EFCC needs to be made truly independent –
to fight corruption, without interference from the executive,
or anyone.
I have since forgiven the people who accused me, including my
own friends who have since come to ask for forgiveness. But
things must change. We are witnesses today of a respected
CBN governor being accused of corruption by government, for
blowing the whistle on the theft of $20b. In 5 years, a new
generation of young people will believe Mallam Sanusi was
a theif, due to the sheer amount of effort by the government
to sully his name.
So I must ask again: is our country ever going to prosper with
these gross abuses of power by her presidents?
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