Posted by Lanre Adewole, Abuja on
THE probe of former President Olusegun Obasanjo by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission {EFCC}for alleged corruption has reportedly shifted to moneybags who romanced him while in power over suspicion that they could be fronts used in siphoning public funds while he held sway as president for eight years.
THE probe of former President Olusegun Obasanjo by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission {EFCC}for alleged corruption has reportedly shifted to moneybags who romanced him while in power over suspicion that they could be fronts used in siphoning public funds while he held sway as president for eight years.
Commission's spokesperson, Mr. Femi Babafemi confirmed to the Saturday Tribune that a secret investigation of the sundry corruption allegations against the former president was going on, but refused to speak on the direction the investigation was taking and what had been turned up by the investigators.
Commission's boss, Mrs Farida Waziri, had set up a five-man panel to investigate the allegations against the former Nigerian leader. Saturday Tribune, however, gathered from a source that the investigators had been sent in different directions to gather exhibits and pieces of evidence that could be used in establishing a prima facie case against Obasanjo.
The source further noted that those to be quizzed over the matter would be invited immediately the veracity of the claims made in the petition against the former president had been established through the on-going preliminary investigation.
It was also gathered that probable business fronts would be investigated since the former president would not be expected to have used his name directly in deals and contracts in which he was fingered. Saturday Tribune equally learnt that big-time contractors and businessmen who enjoyed large patronage from Obasanjo's government during his eight-year rule would receive serious attention from the investigators, with many of them likely to be quizzed in the process of establishing the facts of the case against the retired army General.
It is an open secret that some top industrialists and businessmen from the North, South-East and South-West cornered almost all the juicy contracts during Obasanjo's administration and, in turn, contributed financially to almost all the former president's personal projects while in office, including the controversial Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library which was one of the issues raised in the petition.
The suspicion is that the huge patronage might not be due to their firms' qualification, but as a way of protecting the business interest of the former president.
The investigation, according to Saturday Tribune source could also extend to former top government functionaries who served in the administration of Obasanjo, in order to get facts related to contracts, especially in the oil and energy sectors.
The source added that serving officials in the oil sector might also be visited while documents on contracts awarded under Obasanjo in the sectors might be scrutinized.
Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) in its petition to the commission, had alleged illegal accumulation of resources from oil sales against the former president.
Other allegations against him included involvement in power contract scandals, illegal acquisition of N200 million shares in Transcorp, illegal acquisition of resources for his library project and using public funds to establish his university, among others.
Meanwhile the commission has begun a manhunt for two top government functionaries in a South-South state (name witheld) and two others whose names reportedly featured prominently in an alleged N10 billion scam rocking the administration of the state.
Babafemi told the Saturday Tribune that the affected persons would be arrested whenever seen, since they had decided not to respond to the invitation of the commission.
The affected public officers are the Permanent Secretary and Director of Finance in the Government House. He stated that instead of the officers appearing last Thursday as agreed, it was the Permanent Secretary and Director of Finance in the Ministry of Finance that came to the commission and had to be sent back since they were not the officials needed for interrogation.