The BMO salvo:
In what appears to be one of the main features of the on-going campaign towards the 2019 general elections, the two leading candidates,President Muhammadu Buhari (APC) and Atiku Abubakar (PDP) are once again trading punches.This time around, it is the Buhari Media Organisation,BMO that has thrown the first salvo by raising an alarm over an alleged grand plot by the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar to smuggle illicit funds into the country ahead of the 2019 elections.
BMO therefore asked the Central Bank of Nigeria and relevant security agencies including the Customs and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to be on the lookout for cross border movement of large sums of dollars into the country.
A BMO statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke said that it is as a result of the desperation to bring money stashed abroad into the country with a view to outspending the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
“We have it on good authority that the PDP and its Presidential candidate are making strenuous efforts to bring in public funds stashed abroad including those from recent sales of assets in Angola which were acquired with illicit funds.
“We also know that the former Vice President has made promissory transaction commitments on a number of strategic national assets including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and a percentage holding in the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) to a foreign syndicate.
“All these are out of desperation and as a result of his inability to raise funds from governors elected on PDP platform, many of whom are themselves locked in stiff battles for their seats”, it said.
The group explained that the move by the PDP Presidential candidate follows stringent measures put in place by the CBN and EFCC to ensure sanity in the banking sector.
This BMO said is against the backdrop of how top officials of the last PDP government used some banks especially Fidelity Bank to move public funds to party officials in all states of the federation before the last election.
it added “It is clear to Atiku Abubakar and PDP elements that the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration has put in place a system that has made it difficult for the type of situation in 2015 where former Petroleum Resources Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke could warehouse $115,000,000 (One hundred and fifteen million dollars) which was then shared among party officials to influence electoral officials.
“They also know that even the EFCC is very much on the alert at local airports as seen in the manner its operatives have twice in recent times intercepted undeclared sums of money running into millions of dollars.
“So these opposition elements are now working out a more crooked way of bringing in money through the borders in order to circumvent the system before and during the February 2019 elections”.
BMO consequently wants all relevant agencies to double their efforts to enforce provisions of the of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011 (as amended).
Next, Atiku replies
The PDP candidate did not take this lying low. A statement signed by Paul Ibe, media adviser to Atiku Abubakar described the allegations that Atiku was planning to smuggle looted funds as infantile.
According to Atiku’s media aide: “Our attention has been drawn to a statement by President Muhammadu Buhari accusing Atiku Abubakar of planning to smuggle in looted funds into the country just before the February 2019 elections.
“This new accusation, like their previous allegations, is another infantile outburst that tells more about the accuser than the accused. Atiku Abubakar has no looted funds abroad or in Nigeria.
“For the avoidance of doubt, history shows that rather than smuggle in looted cash, Waziri Atiku Abubakar has a record of preventing looted funds from being smuggled into Nigeria.
“In 1984, it was Atiku Abubakar, as head of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Command of the Nigerian Customs and Excise Department, that stopped the ADC of the then Military Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, from smuggling in 53 suitcases of looted money into the country.
“Young Nigerians and millennials who may not be aware of this incident, will do well to Google it. Only the guilty are afraid. It is President Muhammadu Buhari who has a history of smuggling in looted funds and not Waziri Atiku Abubakar.
“In fact, Nasir El-Rufai, a favourite of the President and a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, said as follows on October 4, 2010:
“‘In 1984, Buhari allowed 53 suitcases belonging to his ADC’s father to enter Nigeria unchecked at a time the country was exchanging old currency for new.”
“Atiku Abubakar’s plane was searched, his accounts have been perused and his businesses have been thoroughly investigated with a fine tooth and nothing remotely corrupt or illegal has been found.
“In desperation, the Buhari administration released this statement to cover their shame on a day that the US based International Strategic Studies Association reported that it is the unprecedented corruption around President Buhari that has led to the recent setbacks in the war on terrorism in the Northeast and the heavy loss of lives amongst the military rank and file. May God save Nigeria from a government that values money over lives.
“We therefore urge Nigerians to note that it is Muhammadu Buhari who has a history and a record of smuggling in looted funds and it is Waziri Atiku Abubakar who has a history of preventing such from happening.
“And while they are at it, we urge them to tell Nigerians those behind Etisalat and Keystone Bank and how they suddenly possessed such wealth overnight.
“Finally, Nigerians should note that the Buhari administration cannot defend their record on jobs and poverty – the things of most concern to voters – thus, their only resort is slander.”
