- Alleges traditional rulers, govs also culpable in oil theft
From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
Following the suspension of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Mr Godwin Emefiele and his subsequent arrest by the “Secret Police”, President Bola Tinubu has been advised not to listen to the former Governor of the Apex Bank, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.
The National Chairman of Tinubu Support Network and Director-General of Amalgamated APC Support Groups, Mr Kailani Muhammad who stated this while addressing newsmen in Kaduna yesterday specifically urged Tinubu to ignore Sanusi’s ‘notice me’ act but rather extend “abuse of office” investigation against Emefiele to Sanusi’s tenure while in the same office some nine years ago.
According to Kailani, Sanusi Lamido has integrity questions hanging on his neck which led to his removal by former President Goodluck Jonathan around 2014 which Tinubu should not ignore.
“We have been seeing the former Governor of the CBN, Sanusi Lamido around the presidential villa and other public places and that was a source of concern to us. We want to advise that Mr President doesn’t listen to him.
“In fact, we want the investigation extended to his tenure as a former CBN Governor. There were a lot of issues hanging on his neck which made former President Jonathan suspend him.
“We also know that Emefiele is his boy. He too should be investigated alongside Emefiele so they can bring out our money for developmental purposes”, he said.
On the recent strong allegation by Asari Dokubo that 99 per cent of oil theft in the oil-rich Niger Delta is being perpetrated under the watch of the Nigerian Army and Nigerian Navy, Kailani further alleged the involvement of some top traditional rulers and governors in the high-scale oil theft running into billions of dollars since 1983.
“Oil theft is not just about the military. It involves some traditional rulers and governors and they started in 1983. They are very powerful people.
“So Mr President has to step up, stand on his feet and be ready to deal with anyone found sabotaging our source of revenue because we operate a mono-economy. We depend on oil for survival as a country and the best Tinubu can do for himself is to put a stop to it so he can have resources to deliver his ‘renewed hope” campaign mantra to the citizens”, he opined.
Concerning the appointment of new security chiefs, he said, “Let the Service Chiefs and other security leaders come together because what we used to have until now is weak interagency collaboration.
“Some of them will just keep intelligence within instead of sharing it with other sister agencies. But, if they can come together and form a formidable force, we will finish with the issue of insecurity in this country and our lives and economy will be better for it.
“So let us hope that things will go well. We will be talking to them through press conferences from time to time to tell Nigerians the situation report as this administration goes into its first 100 days in office and we hope it is going to be very positive, especially with what we have seen Tinubu doing in less than his first three weeks in office as President.”