Found but not lost (2)

The scandal of the huge stash of multi-currency cash “discovered” at Osborne Towers in Ikoyi, Lagos continues with limited illumination! All we know two weeks after the incident broke is that someone stashed cash in dollars, pounds sterling and Naira with a cumulative value of over N13billion in an apartment in Ikoyi, and we are even today not sure who it was that put the cash there. I do not accept, and Nigerians should not accept, the seeming attempt to foreclose the issue of who put the cash in that expensive flat in favour of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA). The first issue that needs to be decided is precisely resolving the doubt as to whether NIA claiming ownership of the funds is true or whether it was an attempt (that may have now backfired) to cover up on behalf of anyone in government.

In my view, the terms of reference of the high-powered Presidential Committee headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and including National Security Adviser, General Babagana Munguno and Attorney General Abubakar Malami as revealed in the presidential statement announcing the investigation, preclude precisely that fundamental question. I have strong confidence in Professor Osinbajo given his legal and academic background; excellent service as Lagos State Attorney-General as well as his integrity and reputation, and unlike some, I actually prefer him carrying out this investigation rather than the EFCC, DSS or Police! However I do agree with those who have reservations about NSA Munguno’s membership involvement in the investigation given reports that the NIA claims it informed him of the stash of cash it now claims as its own.

The presidential statement establishing the Osinbajo Committee as reported in the media said “In a related development, the President has ordered a full scale investigation into the discovery of large amounts of foreign and local currencies by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in a residential apartment at Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, over which the National Intelligence Agency, NIA, has made a claim. The investigation is also to inquire into the circumstances in which the NIA came into possession of the funds, how and by whose or which authority the funds were made available to the NIA. It is also to establish whether or not there has been a breach of the law or security procedure in obtaining custody and use of the funds.”In my view the very first duty of the Committee is to establish the truth, veracity or otherwise of the NIA’s claim and preclude the possibility that the NIA Director-General’s claim was not at attempt by him and/or anyone else within or outside government to cover up the real facts of the issue. It is only AFTER clearly verifying and establishing NIA’s claim to the funds that the Committee can proceed to the other matters mentioned in the presidential statement!

In specific terms, it will be necessary to ascertain based on documentary and other evidence, who was the owner and tenant or other occupant of the flat in question? The Committee should be expected to review documents evidencing ownership or tenancy of the flat. If the tenant is an incorporated entity, questions such as by whom and when was the company incorporated? Who are the directors of the company? Who are its shareholders? Which lawyer or other professional handled the incorporation of the company? If as has been mentioned in the media, the tenant or owner of the flat was a certain Chobe Ventures Ltd, these questions should be applied to that entity. Information from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) should help resolve these questions. It is important to retain its credibility that the committee establishes with compelling and unchallenged evidence that NIA’s claim of ownership of the Osborne cash was not in aid of an official cover-up.

Once the committee establishes NIA’s claim to the funds, it may then proceed to the other issues listed in the presidential statement-how did NIA acquire the cash? Who approved the disbursement and for what purposes? Were the purposes legitimate or a mere cover for economic or political corruption? How were the sums received by NIA spent or to be spent and did the nation receive value for its money? Such investigation must cover not just the $49million but the entire sums received by the agency (and other agencies?) in relation to the original transaction. The Vice President’s Committee must also investigate the EFCC’s activities in the matter-what information did EFCC receive and how come there appeared to be keys of the safes holding the cash as seen from pictures published in the media.

Readers would have noted that the part of the presidential statement I quoted above started with the words, “…in a related development”. In one of the mysteries of the Buhari administration, the Presidency first announced an investigation into the corruption allegations against the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir David Lawal over the “grass-cutting” and other alleged heists under the cover of the Presidential Initiative on the North-East (PINE) which he headed! These were corruption allegations that were more-or-less established by the Senate several weeks back and to which the President had written the legislative house basically exonerating the SGF. The President’s action was a clear after-thought and the action of suspending Lawal and ordering this belated investigation must be understood in the context of either a power struggle within the presidency or an effort to “balance the equation” as the NIA Director General Yemi Oke was also to be suspended in the same statement.

In the end, the Buhari government may be able to leverage the investigation into the Osborne Cash and SGF PINE issues, to re-establish the integrity and credibility of their anti-corruption campaign. On the other hand, if the investigations and their outcome are perceived as part of an elaborate charade, they may signal the campaign’s final internment.

Opeyemi Agbaje