Nigeria’s former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, has described as rubbish, the claim that he fled the country with half of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, when he left government.
The allegation was made in the United Kingdom’s parliament by Tom Tugendhat, on Monday during the debate of a petition on need to sanction government’s officials who had a hand in the shooting of EndSARS protesters at Lekki Toll gate in Lagos.
His words: “The problem this time is not foreign pressure known as colonialism. The pressure instead is corruption and violence and attempts at control (of power).
“We need to call out the corruption, we need to use the powers that we have in this country to stop those who are profiting from the wealth of that great nation and hiding it here.
“Now some people will remember when General Gowon left Nigeria, he took half of the Central Bank, so it is said, and moved to London.
“We know today, even now in this great city of ours, there are sadly some people who have taken the wealth of Nigerian people and hidden their ill-gotten gains here.
“We know that our banks sadly have been used for that profit or that illegal transfer of asset and that means that the UK is in a unique position in being able to actually do something to really exert pressure on those who have robbed Nigerians.”
But in his reaction, during an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, BCC, Gowon said his records were there for all to see.
Said he: “What the MP said is rubbish. I don’t know where he got that rubbish from, I served Nigeria diligently and my records are there for all to see.
“I did not want to speak on this issue because people that know me know that what the MP said is not true.”
