Falana faults use of looted funds recovered by Buhari govt

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has faulted the usage of trillions of naira from looted funds recovered under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The monies which were recovered through the whistleblower policy, Treasury Single Account (TSA) and Bank Verification Number (BVN), according to Falana, would have been used to address the increasing rate of poverty in Nigeria, but that the current government failed to do that.

Falana stated this during the second anniversary of the whistleblower policy put together by the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) in Abuja on Monday.

Also noting that what had been recovered was a tip of the iceberg, the Senior Advocate, accused Buhari’s government of failure to follow up on the various tips he provided including the request he made to the Minister of Finance on March 8, 2016 to recover $200 billion.

“Apart from boasting about the success recorded so far in the implementation of the TSA, BVN and whistleblower policies, the trillions of naira which have been saved or recovered by the Federal Government have not been deployed to arrest the increasing wave of poverty in the land,” he said.

He said from the information made available to him from the National Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had withheld $20 billion from the federation account.

He further said from the 2015 audit exercise conducted by NEITI, that the figure had increased to $22 billion and N376 billion.

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The Lagos based lawyer also hinted that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has begun probe into his petition about the 60.2 million barrels of crude oil stolen from Nigeria between 2011 and 2014 which were discharged at the Philadelphia Port in the United States.

He added, “If the investigation can be painstakingly conducted, it is estimated that not less than $300bn could be realised as the costs and penalties for the oil stolen from Nigeria and discharged in several ports in the United States, China, India, United Kingdom, France.”

In his remarks at the event, AFRICMIL coordinator, Chido Onumah, said the fight against corruption in Nigeria should not be left to the government alone, explaining that goal of the organization is to sensitise the citizens to their roles in tackling corruption.

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