“Buhari’s Aides Are Looting Nigerian Treasury To Fund 2019 Presidential Campaign”
It began with the Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari shortly following the accession to the seat of president by Mohammadu Buhari in 2015 when the Chief of Staff was caught with his hand in the kitty as he collected N500million bribe from the Telecommunication giant from South Africa, MTN over infractions with the Nigeria Communications Commission [NCC]. Abba Kyari collected the bribe to smoothen the landing for MTN. And when the situation was brought to the attention of the President, Abba Kyari explained he collected the N500milion bribe as part of the 2019 reelection campaign fund. President Buhari accepted the explanation without meting out disciplinary measures.
As the years in office rolled on, the aides of the President grew more emboldened without care to consequences or immoral underpinnings. Virtually all the federal ministries and parastatals attached to the presidency joined the supposed 2019 campaign fund raising guise to boldly dip their tentacles into the coffers of the ministries and parastatals – with the President and his anti-graft appointees looking away.
The federal ministry of education is where the culprits have taken the garnet to the boldest level.
Of particular mention is the executive secretary of TETFund, Alhaji Bichi Bappa who hails from Kano State but wields mighty influence within the presidency. Through his influence, Bappa managed to cast a web of control across the entire contract award process involving all TETFund funded contracts. This he managed to achieve through collusion with the boss of Bureau of Public Procurement [BPP], Mamman Ahmadu who gave a complete rubber stamp to the entire contract award process. The BPP boss threw due process out the window – he gave the TETFund boss special noncompetitive contract award clauses to enable the TETFund boss to award contracts to his choice contractors – who are often his relatives.
With unrivaled boldness, the TETFund instituted a 20% deduction from all TETFund contracts. The 20% deduction, Bappa openly indicated was for ‘stakeholders’, unnamed ‘stakeholders’. Only institutions and contractors who agreed to the 20% deduction are awarded contracts.
In 2017, President Buhari, approved the sum of ₦213,418,124,493.75 [N213billion] for the TETFund 2016 Intervention Budget for the year 2017 intervention activities. Out of which the 74 government owned universities will get ₦74,696,340,000 [N74.7billion], 54 government owned polytechnics would get ₦37,348,128,000 [₦37.3billion], and 55 government owned colleges of education will get the remainder of ₦37,348,135,000 [N37.3billion]. Out of the N213.4billion, 20% is deducted for unnamed ‘stakeholders’ equivalent to N42.7billion. For just one year.
This amount is virtually smuggled out of government treasury into the pockets of unnamed ‘stakeholders’. This practice by Bappa resulted in many petition being drafted and presented to the anti-graft agencies – of which no actions were taken on the petitions. Many of the petitions contained convincing documentations pointing to the practices of the TETFund boss and the BPP boss.
See one of the many petitions below:
A source who has followed the escapades of the TETFund boss revealed to 247ureports.com the identity of the supposed nameless ‘stakeholders’ purse to be a campaign group put together by Bappa by the name “One2TELL10 Buhari Support Group”. Our source indicates that the fund is used to run the support group.
“Buhari has full knowledge of this”, he says.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC] is another agency used by the aides of the President to loot the public treasury under the guise of raising campaign funds. The acting chairman of the EFCC is reportedly neck deep in the practice.
Stay tuned for the complete report on this series
