2.8 BILLION DOLLARS 1978 OIL MONEY WAS TRACED TO GENERAL BUHARIS MIDLAND NOW HSBC OFFSHORE BANK ACCOUNT THAT WAS WHY HE STRUCK ON DECEMBER 31 1983. Before he became HOS in 1983 he was the General Officer Commanding the 3rd Armoured Division Jos. With armour under your command you could launch coups. Abuja where President Shagari was celebrating the New Year is flat terrain suitable for armoured warfare. But it never came to that. Shagaris regime (1979-1983), incurred Buharis wrath when it decided to investigate the US$2.8 billion that disappeared from the Midland Bank, London account of the Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation, (NNPC), during General Obasanjos era as military head of state that preceded Shagaris. Dr. Olusola Saraki, Turaki of Ilorin, was the majority party leader of the Senate at the time and he headed the Senate Committee set up to trace the stolen money after some three years of clamour for such an investigation by members of the civil society. The money was traced to the Midland Bank London branch fixed account of Buhari, Obasanjos appointee as military head of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company. The Committees report was presented to the Senate during the tail end of Shagaris regime in 1983, so the House decided to deal with the matter soon after the 1983 general elections. The attempt at civilian-to-civilian transition provided the fillip for mayhem at the time. The elections were marred by massive rigging because incumbent political office holders were refusing to slacken their stranglehold on Nigeria Plc., mortgaged as the leaders private property. On the 31st December, 1983, Buhari struck under the cover of the political commotion that trailed the presidential election results. Buhari generally had no agenda for leadership but vendetta against those he called critics and rabble-rousers. Buhari did not see any moral wrong in his conversion of our oil money into his personal use. Rather he railed at the press and what he described as the self-righteous sections of the country for making a big deal out of the issue. He locked up without trial, politicians and critics including Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, notorious for clamouring for the exposure of the oil money rogue. Satire saved my neck at the time. Vera Ifudu, who was an NTA reporter then, was sacked through his prodding as military ruler, for reporting what Dr. Olusola Saraki had told her in an interview about how the missing money was traced to Buharis account at a Midland Bank London branch. Vera eventually won her case of wrongful dismissal in court against the NTA and was financially compensated. Abacha rehabilitated Buhari with the chairmanship of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) before he (Abacha) died in 1998. When Obasanjo returned to power in May 1999 as civilian president, he found that over 2.5 billion naira had not been properly accounted for in the PTF and that there was not much on the ground to show for the colossal expenditure the agency was claiming. On the day Obasanjo announced the scrapping of the PTF, a non-staff brother-in-law of the boss, allegedly serving as his conduit on some PTF projects, died suddenly from what appeared to be heart failure. Haruna Adamu, who was appointed by Obasanjo to investigate the PTF before finally consigning it to the dung heap, allegedly quickly pocketed one hundred million naira of PTFs money before operating table could be set up for him, thus forcing Obasanjo to hurriedly close the place down without further investigations. Buhari has been trying desperately since to return to power, perhaps to get a chance to shred the PTF documents? BUHARI IN STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN: A picture taken 13 July 1977, in Stockholm, shows King Carl Gustaf of Sweden (R), talking to Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani of Saudi Arabia (C), the strong man of the OPEC summit, and Colonel Muhammad Buhari of Nigeria 13 hrs · Lagos · Public Report
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 06:43:14 +0000
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