The Peoples Democratic Party has alleged that the Central Bank of Nigeria under its suspended Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido, gave N1bn to the All Progressives Congress to open offices nationwide.
It therefore demanded for a detailed forensic audit of all the accounts and financial activities of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 2009 till date.
The suspended Governor of the Bank was appointed on June 3, 2009.
In a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh on Sunday,the ruling party also demanded that the audit must establish and publish all movement of monies from the CBN accounts such as contract sums, donations and other extra budgetary spending under Sanusi.
Metuh said the audit would reveal all contracts awarded by the apex bank within the period, the beneficiary companies and persons behind them as well as the value of the contracts and their status of execution.
Metuh said from the investigations carried out by his party, the APC and its some of its members had been the beneficiaries of “syphoned CBN money surreptitiously diverted to them by the suspended CBN governor.”
Asserting that a fraudulent N48 billion contract was awarded to a leader of the APC while N5 billion was further paid to another stalwart of the party as consultancy fee, Metuh said the bank also diverted over “N1billion to the APC to open offices across the nation in addition to N100 million donated each to some chieftains of APC to fund their activities last year.
Metuh insisted that the audit must expose the true beneficiaries of over N150 billion doled out as developmental donations especially as some of the institutions listed as beneficiaries such as the Bayero University Kano (BUK) have denied receiving the sums recorded against their names by the CBN. It noted that BUK was widely reported to have announced that it received only N1billion as against the N4 billion claimed by the apex bank.”
Apart from this, Metuh added that his party as well as other well meaning Nigerians were particularly worried by allegations that such funds might have actually ended up as financial support to clandestine groups working against the unity and corporate existence of the nation”.
The APC has however described the PDP’s allegation as utter rubbish coming from a daft party and asked Nigerians to ignore the allegation.
Apart from this, it said that the plan of the PDP was to divert attention of Nigerians from the missing $20b dollars from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation account.
The Interim National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who spoke to our correspondent on the telephone, also said that though he was not aware of any of the members of the APC that won contract under Sanusi, but wondered whether it was also wrong for any Nigerian to get a contract from the Federal Government.
He said Nigerians would want to know if only PDP members were entitled to getting contracts from the Federal Government.
Mohammed said, “It is an allegation that an only come from a daft person aiming at distracting Nigerians from the real issue of the missing $20b dollars.
“We don’t know of any of our members that go contract from the CBN, but this can only be an issue if such contract was not executed.
“Also, are they saying that it is only PDP members that can get legitimate contract from the Federal Government? Let them continue with their innuendos, but one thing is sure, the issue of the missing $20b dollars will not be swept under the carpet by Nigerians.”
Mohammed added that the missing money was capable of providing 20,000 megawatts for Nigerians and that this would have solved the electricity problem in the country.
Nigeria is currently generating about 4,000 megawatts of electricity.
He added, “$29b dollars can give us 20,000 kilometer of roads, it can give us 1,666 modern hospitals and it can pay 160,000 teachers for 50 years.”
Metuh, however, further said that from the facts available to the party, some of which he said had already been published by the Financial Reporting Council, there were proofs that within the period, the apex bank engaged in what he described as “reckless award of inflated contracts through which over N680 billion CBN money was frittered away.”
Stating that the beneficiaries of the contracts consist of highly corrupt persons who he said had been hiding under the toga of anti-corruption crusaders and whistle blowers to syphon the nation’s resources, Metuh said it had been established that there were huge infractions on the management of the bank’s funds which he said made it impossible for it to properly prepare its financial statements since 2012 using International Financial Reporting Standards.
Metuh said, “Forensic audit will provide answers to how the apex bank under Sanusi spent N20.202 billion on ‘Legal and Professional Fees’ in 2011, as well as the N1.257 billion spent on ‘Private Guards’ and ‘Lunch for Policemen’ in 2012.
“It will explain to Nigerians how the sum of N23 million and N50 million were spent just to renovate the official residence of the CBN governor, while solving the puzzle of N848 million claimed to have been spent on the purchase of a property from the National Planning Commission even without any transaction agreement.”
He said the discrepancies noted in the 2011 and 2012 CBN account regarding the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company wherein the CBN claimed to have paid a total of N38.233 billion to the company in 2011 for printing of banknotes whereas the NSPMC declared a total turnover of N29.370 Billion for all its transaction with all clients (including the CBN) were grave issues of corruption that no responsible government will sweep under the carpet.
According to the him, “this financial recklessness was capped by impudence in the illegal acquisition without the knowledge of the President or the CBN Board, of seven per cent shares of International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation of Malaysia to the tune of N0.743 Billion in a in clear violation of the CBN Act.
“The issue of prudence at the apex bank borders cardinally on the health of the economy, the growth and well being of the entire nation.
“Our demand for a forensic audit therefore tallies seamlessly with our firm position on due process and rule law, bearing in mind the imperative of straightening the records and bringing offenders to book, failure of which will catalyze a furious denudation on the confidence of Nigerians in governance, while emitting wrong signals to the international communities, especially, the development partners.”