A former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has offered to refund the sum of $250 million dollars to the Federation in return for immunity from further investigation and possible prosecution.
However, approach has reportedly been rebuffed by President Buhari.
A top source told correspondent that the former minister has been reaching out to influential ruling party officials to prevail on President Buhari to accept her offer and let bygones be bygone. Mrs. Alison-Madueke had enlisted the support of several figures close to Mr. Buhari, including Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, to intercede with the incumbent president, an impeccable source revealed.
The former petroleum minster was one of the closest ministers to former President Goodluck Jonathan, and has beeen linked to numerous money-laundering scandals and deals that reputed the outgone administration of Goodluck Jonathan. Madueke oversaw several oil swap deals, the disposition of oil wells handed over by Shell Petroleum to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and the direct looting of funds through the NNPC.
This, in some way, warranted former Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, being forced out of office after he revealed that the NNPC had failed to remit more than $20 billion in oil revenues with the CBN.
According to a source, Madueke’s latest offer to refund at least $250 million to the government came after she learned that President Buhari’s scheduled meeting with US Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, would include a discussion of ways that the US government could facilitate the investigation, arrest and prosecution of some officials of the Jonathan administration implicated in the theft of billions of dollars and a variety of frauds that resulted in the loss of significant sums of public funds in Nigeria.
You would recall that earlier reports were made in the week regarding the former Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, succumbing to the President Buhari’s call on a possible probe of the Jonathan administration over some series of questionable financial transactions.
It was further disclosed that Buhari was unimpressed by Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s offer. A source said: “Mr. President considers the $250 million as ridiculous considering the amount of money Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke is suspected to have diverted into her pocket and those of others.”
Buhari is bent on ordering a full audit of deals and transactions done by the former Petroleum Minister and her cohorts in the various agencies that reported to her, sources said.
Reports have revealed that security agents who ransacked the homes of former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, were able to lay hands on some revealing documents that are soon to be reviewed. Furthermore, President Buhari is reportedly focused on looking inward at the extensive embezzlement of security funds by appointees of the Jonathan Administration. Buhari has approved an investigation of how more than $3 billion in Nigeria’s defense budget was spent.
Earlier today, the Department of State Security (DSS) arrested and detained Gordon Obuah, a former Chief Security Officer to President Goodluck Jonathan. Mr. Obuah is reportedly being drilled over allegations of a multi-million dollar oil bunkering deal during the Jonathan Regime.
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