Will President Buhari jail Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu over corruption? That is the big question on the lips of many Nigerians, particularly supporters of Tinubu after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC decided to open an investigation into corruption allegations against the former Governor of Lagos state and APC National Leader.
There were suggestions that the relationship between the former political allies has broken down and there have been plots to frustrate the former Governor by those in Government who feel he poses a threat to their political ambitions. On the hand, there are others who believe that Tinubu, who many say single-handedly ensured that Buhari emerged winner in the 2015 presidential election, must be brought to book for various corruption allegations hanging over his neck.
But these speculations are not particularly new. A couple of times, there had been stories over alleged strained relationship between Buhari and Tinubu, but they somehow make a fool out of those alleging that by coming on strong to present a common front.
As for corruption allegations against Tinubu, they have been there for over a decade, but nothing gets done. However, the corruption allegations seem to have come up stronger now than ever. And it does seem that attention is finally being paid to them.
Trouble started for the former Lagos governor, not long after President Muhammadu Buhari took power six year ago, following the calls by critics of the former Governor’s for his probe, allegedly, for corruptly enriching himself from the resources of the Centre of Excellence as Lagos is widely known. But the anti-graft agency had ignored the call on the basis that there are no strong grounds to charge him to court.
President Muhammadu Buhari: Will he jail Tinubu?
Recall that Tinubu, was in 2011 charged before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, for false assets declaration but, later, discharged by the tribunal for lack of enough evidence.
However, speculations were that a number of senior citizens, including a high profile Traditional Ruler intervened on Tinubu’s behalf. It was also, alleged, that the then President Goodluck Jonathan was not keen on taking-on Tinubu.
But the call to investigate him gained momentum as soon as Buhari came to power in 2015 with many insisting that he must explain the source of his wealth. Two years ago, it gained momentum after bullion vans were spotted in his Bourdillon, Lagos home on the eve of the 2019 Presidential election. The vans were said to have been loaded with cash which was allegedly used to bribe voters to vote for the APC candidates during the election. Tinubu has not denied the allegation. The bullion van incident was one that shook the nation, and deducted quite some from the reputation of the EFCC as an impartial anti-graft agency.
For instance, immediately after the 2019 election, a human rights activist, Deji Adeyanju submitted a petition to the EFCC demanding that Tinubu be probed over the bullion van saga, noting that there were enough grounds to bring the former Governor to justice.
After submitting the petition to the anti-graft agency, the activist told journalists “Remember, a few days ago, the EFCC challenged Nigerians that the reason they cannot investigate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu over the election eve bullion vans sighted at his residence was because there was no petition to that effect.
“Some of us have already taken up the challenge which is exactly the reason we are here and, basically, I believe that, as citizens of our country, we must always ensure that the right thing is done at all times. To the best of our knowledge, Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a private citizen who ordinarily should not be seen with a convoy of bullion vans.”
The activist demanded to know what the cash loaded vans were doing in the house of the politician a few hours to the presidential election.
Adeyanju said The questions begging for answers are: What are bullion vans doing in the house of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu? Who owns the content, believing to be cash in the bullion vans that were seen entering the house of Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the eve of Nigerian presidential elections?
“Has the commission, based on its core mandates, investigated the source of the Bullion Vans? Is Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s house now a bank where Bullion Vans now take money to?” Adejanju demanded.
In spite of the issues raised by the activist in the petition, and by other prominent Nigerians who demanded that a searchlight be beamed on APC strongman, the anti-agency led by the now sacked Ibrahim Magu failed to act on the allegations, which raised many questions of a state cover up for Tinubu. This even became moreso following suggestions in some quarters that Tinubu was instrumental to the appointment of the former EFCC boss and that efforts to sweep the matter under the rug was in the offing. The suspicion that Magu was covering up for the former governor, despite an avalanche of allegations against him, became stronger after the ex-EFCC boss was quoted to have said there were not enough evidence for the Commission to act.
Magu was eventually removed, last year, as the Chairman of the Commission by President Buhari based on the recommendations of Presidential Panel which investigated him for alleged corruption and insubordination to the Minister for Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN.
But barely five months after the exit of Magu from the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, the new boss of the Commission has swung into action to investigate the former governor, raising serious questions on whether the Presidency has seen the need to go after the APC stalwart.
According to a letter marked CR/3000/EFCC/LS/Vol4/322, dated November 6, 2020 signed by Abdulrasheed Bawa, who was then Lagos Zonal Head of the commission, the ICPC was requested to furnish the agency with Tinubu’s assets declaration.
The letter read in part, “In view of the above, you are kindly requested to furnish the commission with the outstanding requested information of Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu.This request is made pursuant to Section 38(1) and (2) of the EFCC Act 2004.
In the letter, the EFCC referred to its previous letter of September 4, 2020, and CCB’s response of October 9, 2020, asking the bureau to supply “outstanding requested information of Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu.”
EFCC Operatives
Unconfirmed reports had it that one of reasons for the removal of Magu may not be unconnected with his perceived fraternity with the former Lagos governor. One source said Magu , who was initially seen by the President as a hard working and honest operative “began to receive a cold shoulder from the same President who had tried to push him through Senate confirmation, twice, even after the lawmakers refused to confirm him.
“They showed President Buhari damning evidence from security agencies which solidly proved that the influence of the former Governor was weighing down on Magu’s job as EFCC chair. The President was also informed how the former EFCC boss failed to investigate Tinubu despite various petitions against him by human rights bodies and top individuals in the country, not leaving out some former close associates of Tinubu who want him probed for corruption,” the source said.
In June 2018, Dapo Apara, a former managing director of Alpha Beta Consultants, a tax company in which Tinubu allegedly has interest, wrote the EFCC to probe for alleged tax evasion and fraud to the tune of over N100 Billion. Apara, a chartered accountant, would later sue the former governor on the same grounds more than two years after EFCC failed to act on his petition. Alpha Beta, which has an exclusive right to collect funds on behalf of Lagos State, is believed to be partly owned by Tinubu.
Last October, Apara’s lawyer, Tade Ipadeola, issued a 40-page writ of summons where he accused Alpha-beta and Akin Doherty, a former commissioner in the Lagos State of money laundering, fraud, tax evasion, and other corrupt practices. He revealed in the summons how Tinubu used Gboyega Oyetola, a former director of the firm and now governor of Osun state to launder several billions of naira from the company, which was then diverted to companies owned by the Lagos strongman. Apara fell out with Tinubu after the latter allegedly cheated him of his 30 percent shres in the firm.
Also, last August, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri filed a petition against Tinubu on Change.org, accusing him of corruption and called on the Economic EFCC to probe him over the bullion van saga.
The most damning of the petitions is the one by a pro-democracy group, Coalition Against Corruption and Impunity, which demanded the EFCC to probe Tinubu’s eight year tenure as governor of Lagos state.
The petition, signed July 24, 2020 by John Olufemi and Mohammed Sanni, the group’s coordinator and secretary respectively, was copied to the Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, Abubakar Malami and the Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Mohammed Adamu.
Some of the allegations the coalition is asking the commission to look into are the development of 1,000 hectares of land for golf course and housing estate by Asset and Resource Management Limited at N75billion located at Lakowe near Ibeju Lekki Government given to Lekki Concession Company, LCC) partly owned by Tinubu and his successor Babatunde Fashola,
The group also accused the former governor of operating eight foreign bank accounts while in office as Executive Governor of Lagos State in contravention of Section 7 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, Cap 56 LFN, 1990.
Other allegations are the N250 hectare of land valued at N35billion strategically located at Ajah Junction on Lekki Road originally meant for the construction of General Hospital for Eti-Osa Local Government, handed over to Trojan Estate Limited;
Transferring of the annex of Lagos State Guest House in Asokoro Abuja, purchased by the Lagos State Government in 2006 for N450million to protect the main building from security breach and a 14-hectare Parkview Ikoyi estate foreshore land reclaimed by Lagos State Government.
The rights body said “As citizens we are alarmed by mind-boggling wrongdoing perpetrated during this period and we are even more perplexed that the Law Enforcement and Anti-Corruption Agencies have over the years appear uninterested and unwilling to probe the many allegations of infractions allegedly committed in Lagos state.
”We believe the fight against corruption should be absolute and total with no sacred cows allowed. No territory or individual under the Federal Republic of Nigeria should be beyond investigation of the anti-corruption agencies. Inaction on matters like this is a huge dent to the government’s claim to fight against corruption”.
Considering that the anti-graft agencies have looked the other way for six years after Buhari took power, analysts say Nigerians are surprised that the EFCC has suddenly woken up from its slumber and decided to go after the former Lagos helmsman. They, however, insist that the Commission has the constitutional power to probe anyone, high and low, no matter the political or ethnic affiliation, so long its actions are within the ambitions of the law.
But some close watchers of the Buhari presidency told the magazine that Aso Rock is not happy with the former Governor over some issues affecting the country lately. They particularly cited last year’s EndSARS protest, which some top aides of the President believed had the imprimatur of Tinubu. Even though the politician has denied involvement in the October 20 protest against police brutality by youths across the country, which later snowballed into massive destruction of public property in Lagos and other states, “some associates of the President believe that the protest was sponsored with the intention of bringing down the administration by some politicians in the South west who are not happy with President Buhari’s style of leadership. These people believe that there is nothing that happens in the region without Tinubu’s knowledge. That’s how the former Lagos governor came into the matter, and you know that whenever you are targeted by those in power it is very difficult for the target to prove innocence,” Abdulfatah Arole, an analyst cum Lagos politician told the magazine.
He explained that Tinubu has become a subject of treachery of those in Buhari’s government who are particularly not happy with his decision to run for the 2023 presidential election. Though Tinubu has yet to declare interest in the race, some political groups, including SWAGA, led by Senator Olusola Adeyeye, a former Senate Minority Whip have been moving around the country, consulting with major stakeholders on the need to support the politician’s presidential ambition.
A public analyst and media aide to former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani of Enugu state, Festus Adedayo, in his column, last week, titled ‘Buhari and His Tinubu Frankenstein’ said the 2023 presidential race is the reason why the federal government decided to unleash the EFCC on the former governor.
He said: “By ‘shattering political airwaves,’I meant that the politically naïve were taken aback by this turn of events. In virtually all the states of Nigeria, the periodic rat race for 2023 has begun and only the fittest can survive the heat. We are entering Nigerian politicians’ own masquerade festival season and its insignia of festivity – multiple coloured dresses – is beginning to appear. Anyone in possession of a political binocular microscope which can see through the recess of the fetid minds of the Nigerian politician would predict with oracular certainty that Tinubu’s mess has begun and can only witness a metastasis.”
According to him, some powerful presidential aides are not happy with the rising profile of the former Governor who appeared poised to stop him by all means possible from becoming President, using various corruption allegations against him as a smoke screen. He said Abdulrasheed Bawa’s may have been appointed to bring down the APC stalwart. Noting that the EFCC boss rode on the crest of Malami to clinch the job, he explained that the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, alongside others in the Presidency, is leading the onslaught to frustrate Tinubu’s presidential quest.
“If the highly touted familiar relationship between Malami and Bawa, newly appointed EFCC chairman, has any modicum of truth in it,” Adedayo said “then it may be justifiably said that Bawa’s main assignment could be to achieve the Buhari click’s end result of smoking out Tinubu. The desperation to push through the candidacy of the 40-year old young man and the apparent frenetic drive to adjust his eligibility cadre are pointers to this effort,” he said.
Richard Akinola, another public analyst said “For the EFCC to suddenly wake up now and be asking the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) for Tinubu’s asset declaration forms, reeks of all ingredients of conspiracy theory, particularly against the backdrop of his suspected presidential ambition. He, however, warned the anti-graft agency to thread softly as “Tinubu’s current investigation by the EFCC can’t be divorced from his supposed presidential ambition, a move that would inevitably garner him more sympathy than opprobrium.”
Meanwhile, other watchers of the political events in the country insist that the EFCC probe may actually be a ploy by the Buhari administration to clear the former Governor of alleged graft and give him a clean bill of health to contest the crucial 2023 presidential election.
According to this school of thought, the ongoing probe could be another ingenious way by some power brokers in the ruling APC to perpetuate the party in power, riding on an unwritten agreement allegedly between Buhari and Tinubu that the ex – governor will succeed the former when his tenure expires in three years time.
But Aso Rock sources told the magazine on Monday that the President has confided in some of his close aides recently that he may not support Tinubu’s Presidential ambition because of his belief that the former Lagos governor’s image will tarnish his own image as an anti-graft advocate if he threw his weight behind him to be Nigeria’s president.
This is coming amidst revelation, at the weekend by Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi state, that there was no agreement in the APC for power shift to the south. The controversial helmsman of the Confluence State as Kogi, is widely known is very close to the president and is among top politicians in the ruling party eyeing Buhari’s seat.
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