Officials of 15 agencies may have looted N8.1trn under Jonathan –Minister Lai

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has revealed that the Federal Government had made a discovery of N8.1 trillion that was meant to be remitted to the Federation Account but was never remitted under former President Goodluck Jonathan’s government.

The minister claimed that the crime was committed by 15 revenue generating agencies of the Federal Government between 2010 and 2015.

He stated this in Osogbo, Osun State on Monday while commissioning the channelization, de-silting, flood control and development of Okoko and Ogbagba Rivers, phases one and two, on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said that the discovery by the auditing firm KPMG is many times worse than the N1.34 trillion carted away by 55 public officials between 2006 and 2013.

“Recently, the Federal Government ordered an audit (between 2010 and 2015) of 15 government revenue generating agencies. The result was the discovery that the agencies had not remitted over 8.1 trillion Naira to the Federation Account. This amount is about six times the 1.34 trillion Naira that was stolen between 2006 and 2015.

“It is also the equivalent, on the average, of the country’s yearly national budget! Imagine, for a moment, how many kilometres of roads could have been constructed, how many kilometres of rail tracks that could have been laid, and how many modern hospitals and schools that could have been built if that money had been properly accounted for,” Mohammed said.

He also said at the commissioning of the project that the Buhari administration’s fight against corruption remains very critical because it will free the much-needed resources for national development.

The minister said that the projects being executed by the present administration, including the one that was commissioned in Osogbo – one of 53 being commissioned across the country – could have long been completed but for the mind-boggling looting of the treasury by previous administrations, which deprived the nation of infrastructural growth

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He said that every kobo that is not looted is a plus for development adding, “This is why we will not stop talking about those who have looted the public treasury, despite the pushback from their apologists. If we do not stop the looting of the treasury, there will be no money for the kind of projects we are commissioning here in Osogbo today.”

Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola in his remarks, corroborated the Minister’s disclosure that N8.1 trillion was unaccounted for by 15 revenue generating agencies, saying the share of his state from the said amount is N75 billion which, he said, would have been more than enough to pay all civil servants their salaries and complete all infrastructural projects of the government.

 

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