Goodluck Jonathan’s Govt withdrew over 100 billion ahead of 2015 elections, says Osinbajo
By Samuel Ogunsona
The former President Goodluck Jonathan and the then ruling Peoples Democratic Government took N36 billion in just one day ahead of the 2015 elections
Nigerian Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo said some 3billion dollars were stolen by the PDP government.
He spoke while addressing a conference.
Osinbajo was recalling a string of corruption cases that dotted Nigeria in the past urging Nigerians to be guided by history as they vote in few months time.
Elections in Nigeria hold in every four years
On February 25, the Presidential election will hold starring the ruking All Progressives Congress, APC candidate, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu against two notable others, Abubakar Atiku of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and Labour Party, LP Peter Obi.
Osinbajo’s speech has gone viral. However, many observers wonder what the ruling party has done to retrieve the looted funds almost eight years after.
Osinbajo blamed the high percentage of poor individuals in Nigeria on corruption practices from past governments.
Osinbajo said a lot of money was stolen from the government account before the 2015 election by the past government.
He also emphasized on how much they are still recovering from the looted funds all over the world.
He said, ‘’A few weeks to elections, the sum of 292 million US dollars in cash was taken out of the Nigerian treasury. For two weeks after that, the Central Bank of Nigeria did not have cash dollars’’
He said further ‘’Let us take 100 millions dollars of that, today, that will be about 36 billion naira.The trader money program giving loans to 2 million petty traders is just 20 billion naira. That is one withdrawn from the treasury of Nigeria.
Another day, 60 billion naira was withdrawn,” he added.
Osinbajo said as part of the crime plot, three Nigerians did what was called a “Strategic Allowance Contract” leading to funds taken away and never returned which the Vice President said the Government is still pursuing all over the world.
He said the amount stolen is in the range of 3 billion US dollars.
“How much is 3 billion US dollars? Our entire external reserves is 40 billion dollars today. When we started, it was 28 billion dollars. If somebody makes away with three billion US dollars, How do you then not expect that people to be poor? How do you then not expect that we will not have enough to fund education, to fund infrastructure, to fund bar.”