A civil society group in Kaduna State has risen to the defense of the detained former group managing director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Andrew Yakubu.
The group under the aegis of Southern Kaduna Coalition of Professionals (SKCOP)
alleged that some persons are out to nail Yakubu, whom it described as
"our illustrious son and sacrifice him to the dogs".
It said the perceived enemies are plotting to weaken the strong among them ahead of the 2019 general election.
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EFCC
recovers $9,772,800, £74,000 from former Group Managing Director of the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Andrew Yakubu.(Sahara Reporters)
Last Friday, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) had announced that it recovered $9.8 million and 74,000 pounds
(about N3 billion in total) from a Kaduna home of the ex-NNPC boss.
But Yakubu, who admitted ownership of the money, claimed they were gifts.
In a statement issued on Thursday, February 16, the General Secretary of SKCOP, Sagamu Jasper, argued that there is no law which forbids anyone from keeping his earnings at home.
He said: "We
are waiting to see if a court of law can establish that the said amount
found in his home is a proceed of crime, or whether there is indeed a
law that forbids anyone from keeping his earnings at home.
"We
suspect that the deliberate negative publicity the EFCC is generating
over his arrest and its failure to release him from their detention
after meeting his bail conditions, is more vindictive and political than
fighting corruption.
"We
condemn the desperate attempts to rubbish Andy Yakubu, (the Iyan of
Atyap Chiefdom) by those who think that a man from southern Kaduna has
no business becoming the GMD of NNPC started right when he was in
office."
play
EFCC
recovers $9,772,800, £74,000 from former Group Managing Director of the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Andrew Yakubu.(Sahara Reporters)
It added that in 2014 when Sanusi Lamido,
former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) raised the allegation
of missing $20 billion, the agency which audited the corporation which
was led by Yakubu at the time, cleared the NNPC of any wrongdoing.
"In
2014, the then CBN governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, raised a bogus alarm
that under the watch of Andy Yakubu, $48.9 billion had gone missing at
the NNPC. When pressed further, he said it was actually $20 billion. The
senate took the matter very serious and instituted its own probe into
the clearly silly allegation," the group said.
"An
audit firm of global repute, PriceWaterHouseCoopers was brought in by
the federal government. After a forensic investigation, the firm said no
such monies were ever missing.
"Still
bent on disgracing the only person from the middle belt to ever occupy
that position after rising from the ranks, Andy Yakubu was in UK in
June last year, when the EFCC invited him. With his conscience clean
and clear he arrived Nigeria just for the EFCC to clamp him in detention
over an alleged criminality in an NNPC subsidiary, NPDC after Yakubu
has left office."
Jaspar dared the EFCC to parade all those whom the agency recovered money from.
He said if the Commission refuses to do that, it would confirm the suspicion that the anti-graft agency is "persecuting" Yakubu.
The statement further said:
"Keeping him in detention for almost two weeks despite the above is a
means of psychologically tormenting him and for the public to prolong
their odium on his person, without giving him a chance to state his own
side of the story."
“If Andy
Yakubu is not being persecuted because he comes from Southern Kaduna and
the Middle Belt, we challenge the EFCC to also parade all the people it
claims to have recovered humongous sums of money from. Failure to so
would mean the agency is lying, or has two sets of law for two kinds of
Nigerians."
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