Barrister Okoi Obono-Obla who was appointed Chairman of the Special Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property by former President, Muhammadu Buhari, has stated that several high-level corruption probes were stopped by cronies in the then government.
Obono-Obla was sacked in September 2019, few months after his appointment.
While speaking in an interview with Vanguard, he alleged that some powerful members of the then government he described as patrons of corruption forced him out for investigating highly placed cronies of the government.
“The patrons of corruption in Nigeria in collusion with fifth columnists in the previous regime were not at ease with my patriotic zeal, courage, resolute, strong character, and uncompromising approach to my schedule and decided to push me out by all means.”
He alleged that he was served a letter from the ex-attorney general of the federation, stating that he had to wait for mandate before he could investigate any issue.
Abubakar Malami (SAN) was the minister of Justice and Attorney General under ex-President, Muhamadu Buhari.
“It started as far as January 2018 when I was served a letter from the former Attorney General of the Federation directing me what I should not do including waiting for mandate before I could investigate any matter. I was also stopped from talking to the media. It doesn’t need clairvoyance to tell one that all was not well when you are directed to wait for a mandate before you investigate cases of financial crime, economic sabotage, or grand corruption.”
He further alleged that his refusal to follow this directive led to the suspension of the investigation panel he headed.
“However, I disregarded the directives because they were illegal as the law that created the panel had explicitly spelled out the powers of the panel. Then again, on January 31, 2019, I received another letter saying that since I had refused to adhere to that I should only investigate cases selectively given to me by the powers that be, “the panel is suspended until further notice.”
“Of course, I knew that the letter was coming from the fifth columnists in the regime, I continued to do my work until 11 August 2019, when I was suspended. While my suspension was pending, the panel was disbanded in September 2019”
Obono-Obla also stated he was investigating some dangerous cases including $7billion given to banks as bailout which was not paid back.
“I was investigating some dangerous cases that had remained a no-go area for a long time. Some of them included the $7 billion that was given to banks as bailouts since 2016, which they had refused to pay back; investigating the report of the Judicial Commission into how Nigeria Airways was bankrupted but which report was left to gather dust in government shelves, the failure of oil companies to pay to the federal government royalties and other rental fees amounting to more than $3billion to mention just but a few.” he noted.
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