The City Reporters
President Goodluck Jonathan
Details have emerged of how President Goodluck Jonathan rebuked Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, for writing him to order an investigation into the theft of Nigeria’s crude oil funds amounting to N8 trillion in the space of 19 months alone.
The CBN governor had wrote to Jonathan on September 25, 2013, on how the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had systematically diverted the huge sum, being crude oil sales proceeds between January 2012 and July 2013 to an unknown account.
Sanusi said for all crude oil sales within the period, the NNPC paid only 24 percent proceeds into the federation account, and diverted the remaining 76 percent, totaling N8 trillion.
The CBN said the NNPC paid only N2.5 trillion (USD15.5 billion) out of its N10.3 trillion (USD65.3 billion) crude oil revenue from about 594 million barrels of oil sold within the 19-month period into the federation account. Mr. Sanusi said this while citing documentation from pre-shipment assessors.
Mr. Sanusi accused the NNPC of breaching two key federal laws, and urged the president to act expeditiously by ordering sweeping investigation and prosecution of those found culpable.
President Jonathan, who has refused to act appropriately two months after receiving the letter allegedly questioned Mr. Sanusi on why such letter should be prepared in the first place and sent to him, Presidency sources said.
Reports say finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and petroleum minister, Alison Diezani-Madueke, may be culpable in what is now dubbed the biggest scandalous cover up in the history of Nigeria.
The revelation is coming barely 24 hours after the Speaker of the House of Representatives Aminu Tambuwal criticized Jonathan’s apathetic body language to his purported fight against corruption.
