US Exposé: Jonathan’s Minister Stole N1.2tr

Edo State governor Adams Oshiomhole yesterday revealed that officials of the United States department told him and other members of President Muhammadu Buhari's delegation that a former minister who served under former President Goodluck Jonathan stole $6billion all alone.

Oshiomhole, who was among those that accompanied President Buhari America on his four-day visit to that country, accused the immediate past Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of succeeding in supervising Nigeria's liquidation.

The comrade governor who disclosed this to journalists in Aso Villa after he and Kebbi State governor, Atiku Bagudu, met with the president behind closed doors, said they were at the Villa to meet President Buhari over the National Assembly crisis.

"The PDP destroyed the country. I mean from the lips of American officials; senior officials of the State Department said one minister under PDP cornered as much as $6billion. The man said that, even by Washington standard, that is earth-quaking.


"So, PDP is a party that presided over the liquidation of our nation, destroyed all our institutions, converted the Armed Forces commanders to use them as if they were political thugs, converted NTA to a party megaphone, destroyed the SSS, went after opposition as if we were rabbits to be pursued into our holes, compromised even student unions and destroyed everything that you can think of, and elevated religion to a state affair.

"Under the party, Israel became a place you visit every week; they placed pastors against mallams, placed North against South, East against West just to retain power; elevated Obas and Obis with dollars. You guys were reporting dollars that were changing hands, when NNPC was spending much more money than is available to the Federation Account.

"We are a very patient people. If we were not a patient people, anybody wearing the tag of PDP ought to feel very unsafe because you are all victims – all of us here":

Oshiomhole urged Nigerians to always pity the PDP whenever they hear the party criticizing the current administration because the country now boasts of a president who exudes confidence.

Asked to comment on the latest criticism by the opposition against Buhari's trip to U.S., he said, "No no, no, you have to pity them! We have a president who talks with confidence; not a president that is blabbing and is not sure of what the issues are.

"He (Buhari) is one that can tell the U.S. Senate that 'look, Nigeria is governed by the rule of law. We are not going to do any of those things that is offensive to the culture and tradition of our people. We have moved away from a president that doesn't seem to know his powers, to one that understands that he is a president of the biggest country on the continent.

"Mr. Carson, who was the Assistant Secretary of State when we visited him in company of Senator Saraki, then as chairman of the Governors' Forum – that was at the eve of President Obama's first visit to Africa – and we went to complain, 'why is Nigeria not on the list?' What he said for me was quite instructive compared to what he said last week.

"Then I was present when he said, 'You know, we see ourselves not just as friends of Nigeria, but each time we think there is light at the end of the tunnel and it is time to encourage Nigeria to build on it, you would wake up the following day under President Jonathan to find out that even the tunnel had been removed'.

"Those were the words of Mr. Carson. Now last week, this same Carson chaired the president's address at the Institute of Peace and he said, 'We now have a man of enormous integrity; one that has shown so much faith in the democratic process; one that refused to be frustrated even in the face of massively rigged elections; he submitted to the judicial process and even when that was compromised he never gave up. America has done its check and we are convinced that this president is the one that Nigeria needs at this time to regain its leadership of the African continent.

"America now has a partner worthy of relations because they believe that every dollar that America provides to support Nigeria, whether in the area of security, in the area of education, or encouraging American investors to invest in Nigeria, there is an enabling environment because what had been destroying the country is corruption," the Edo State governor said.

SOURCE: Leadership