Panic Grips Buhari’s Ex-henchmen as Tinubu uncoils

Following the suspension, Emefiele was promptly arrested and has since then being in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS), the nation’s secret police. Although he was granted a N20million bail by a Lagos High Court and ordered to be kept in a correctional centre, pending the perfection of his bail, the DSS has refused to release him. He is still battling to secure his release in court.

Before the end of Buhari’s government, Emefiele had had a running battle with the DSS, which had at some point obtained a court warrant to arrest him for allegedly using his privileged position to indulge in terrorism financing in the country. The next action taken by the Tinubu administration was the suspension from office and arrest of the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa over allegations of corruption and abuse of office.

Although President Tinubu has not been forthcoming on what exactly he intends to do about corruption under his regime, the taking in of these two big wigs appears to have sent shock waves down the spines of some key actors during the Buhari era. Bawa has neither been taken to court not anything heard about him since he was ar- rested by the Secret Police.

Over the past two weeks, there were speculations that the immediate past Minister of Aviation, Mr Hadi Sirika, had been picked up by DSS over the allegations of scamming the nation and ripping it of billions of dollars through the “launch” of Air Nigeria. Sirika reportedly arrived at the DSS headquarters, Abuja on two Fridays ago after which he was said to have been grilled for several hours. The Senate had earlier instituted a probe into the controversial national carrier project, which Sirika superintended during his tenure.

Managing Director, Nigeria Air, Captain Dayo Olumide, has told the Senate Committee on Aviation that the Nigeria Air jetliner purportedly launched at the twilight of the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari was a scam. Olumide said the airliner that landed in Abuja on May 26, Friday was merely repainted and marked as Nigeria Air, passing off a wrong impression whereas it was a chattered aircraft from Ethiopia hired for a few days to showcase the logo to Nigerians and their shareholders.

As at the time of this report, the DSS was yet to deny or confirm that Sirika was in their custody or had been released. Sources close to the anti-graft agencies told Sunday Telegraph that more former ministers may soon have their day with the EFCC as more facts emerge on the activities of their office when they held sway at their respective ministries.

It was learnt that besides Sirika, others who may fall into the EFCC dragnet include the former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami and former Minister of Humanitarian Services Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadi- ya Umar Farouk, both of whom were very powerful during the Buhari regime.

While Malami had been accused of sundry financial improprieties, Farouk might face an uphill task explaining to the anti-graft agencies the huge funds deployed to the Federal Gov- ernment’s School Feeding Programme, especially as the school children were said to have continued to benefit from the programme even when the schools were shut down during the COVID 19 pandemic. Farouk would also be required to counter the recent claims by the National Economic Council (NEC) that the National Social Register used by her office to disburse cash to poor and vulnerable Nigerians lacked credibility.

In a related development, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission(ICPC) has beamed its searchlight on the activities of immediate past Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami. The anti-graft agency, Sunday Telegraph gathered, is investigating Malami over allegations of corruption and abuse of office.

The investigation is sequel to a petition filed by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda,(HEDA) accusing the former AGF of corruption and high-handedness. Chairman, HEDA, Olan- rewaju Suraju, had in the petition dated July 10, 2023, raised a number of allegations against Malami. According to Suraju, on the 2nd day of May 2022, it was widely reported by various news outlets that Malami distributed 30 car gifts worth over N1,000,000,000 to his supporters in Kebbi State.

The petition listed the car gifts to include 14 Mercedes Benz, eight Prado SUVs, four Toyota Hilux and four Lexus LX. Beneficiaries of the car gifts, it was learnt, were social media influencers, executive members of Malami’s foundation and women support groups. The former AGF was also accused of executing two illegal auctioning of sea vessels holding crude oil seized by the Federal Government, thereby violating Section 31(2) and (4) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Act 2004 and assuming the role conferred on the anti-graft agency.

“The AGF also authorized the sale of these vessels by companies under EFCC prosecution for similar offense of illegal bunkering and this action was admitted by the AGF through his Media Assistant pleading presumption of innocence on the part of the accused, in a case being prosecuted by the Federal Government through the EFCC,” Suraju wrote.

The group also accused Malami of “ duplicity of payment of $16.9million fees to two friends as new lawyers for the recovery of the loot traced to a former Nigerian Head of State, Sani Abacha, after a Swiss lawyer, Enrico Monfrini, hired and fully paid by the previous government, to help in the recovery had completed his brief.”

There are fears that many other Buhari’s henchmen may be in for trouble. Buhari himself, had on assumption of office in 2015, picked up the National Security Adviser of Goodluck Jonathan, his predecessor, Col. Sambo Dasuki over a $2.1billion arms fund in the ex-NSA’s custody. Dasuki spent about three years in detention without any substantive outcome. He was later released by the court.