South West Group knocks Buhari over silence on alleged NNPC’s $25b fraud

Yoruba interest group,  the South West Think Tank ( SWETT), has described the continued silence of President  Muhammadu Buhari  over a  $25 billion contract  awarded by the  Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation  (NNPC)  without board approval, as his tactical endorsement of corruption in the system , even as  the  group condemned  the Operation Crocodile Tears of the military in the South-West. 
In a statement by the group in Ibadan, Oyo State capital on Wednesday  and signed by its Publicity Secretary, Chief Femi Davies, SWETT said  Buhari’s pretence of ignorance  of the allegation made by  the Minister of State,  Ibe Kachuckwu, against the NNPC Group Managing Director (GMD), Dr Maikanti  Baru,  over  a $25 billion contract  he unilaterally awarded  is  ” the most devastating blow on the  suspicious fight  against corruption as being propagated by the All Peoples Congress since it assumed power at the centre and a development which has further established the doubt already created by the President’s inaction against sundry cases of corruption that have occurred under his nose ”
 According to the group, it is  national embarrassment  that  a nation that prides itself as the  giant of Africa can afford to keep somebody in jail against court orders, for an  alleged  N21 billion fraud , while   ” a  Minister has accused a Managing Director under him of a monumental fraud to the tune hiof $25 billion yet, the government has refused to act and  register its seriousness about fighting corruption,  while the President,  who got elected on the basis of  his perceived integrity, has also refused to make a comment on the nefarious act  ”
Submitting that the “surface scratching ” statement  by Laolu  Akande, the Chief  Press Secretary  to  Vice President  Yemi Osibajo is a “failed attempt  to cover up the monumental fraud”  SWETT said the Buhari-led  government has done enough to sabotage  its own anti corruption war even,  before the NNPC $25b contract scandal  came to the fore.
It  stated,  among others, that the  allegation  of  abuse of office  levelled against Buhari’s Chief of Staff,  Abba Kyari  who  was alleged to have abused his membership of NNPC Board to influence the award of contract to a highly-indebted company, Valiant Offshore Contractors Limited, against the recommendation of AMCON and at the expense of the country, was unattended to.
The statement mentioned that while another accusation against  the Chief of Staff  of interfering in EFCC investigation of a fraud involving Sahara Energy  did not get the  expected  reaction from government, it said  the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, whose allegation of false declaration of assets against him at the Code of Conduct Tribunal has not been investigated despite proofs of  landed properties  in Dubai traced to him against the code for public office holders remain, a source for concern.
The group also mentioned as discouraging, the government’s inaction and “cover up” of  an allegation  in respect of Buhari’s Minister of Interior, AbdulRahaman Dambazau, who was accused of ownership of properties in the United States (U.S.) and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with a worth beyond his possible savings as a retired military officer, just  as it castigated the government for its  deliberate refusal to revisit the grass cutting scandal case of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Babachir Lawal.
“The National Assembly Investigative Panel that indicted the SSG specifically asked relevant agencies to prosecute the suspended SGF for allegedly awarding contracts worth N500m, through the Presidential Initiative on North-East, a rehabilitation programme under his office, to a company in which he had interests, yet nothing has been done in this regard under a government that claim to be fighting corruption”
According to SWETT,  if the above catalogued deliberate cover up failed to expose government’s  lip service to stamp corruption off the country, “then the recent  $25b contract mess at NNPC has ruined whatever is left of the government in terms of transparency and integrity” .
Thus, the  group urged “all progressive citizens of the country to, for once stand up and demand  from the government what is right” because “we can’t continue to retrogress and pretend not know that there may not be a country to bequeath to our children.”
The Yoruba group in the statement, also came hard on the Military over its operation in the Southwest, code named Crocodile smile.
Condemning the development, SWETT said there is no security challenge  in the Southwest to warrant such intimidating operation like Crocodile Smile.
It  thus urged the authorities concerned to “immediately withdraw the troops assigned to the operation to enable the police perform its constitutional duty of securing the people instead of distracting the law enforcement agents”.