President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been urged to set up an independent judicial panel of enquiry to probe the allegations of high level corruption in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Ltd., and the World Bank operations in Nigeria.
The call was made by a pro-democracy group, Journalists for Democratic Rights, JODER, in a letter it sent to the president on Wednesday.
The pro-democracy group established in 1996 asked the president to immediately set up a judicial panel of enquiry that would be made up of people like Mr Femi Falana (SAN), Prof Jibrin Ibrahim; Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) and other credible Nigerians.
In a statement signed by its official, Akinwale Kasali, the group said corruption was at the heart of Nigeria’s underdevelopment and the root cause of violence and extremism that had taken foothold in many parts of the country.
JODER urged the president to appreciate the weight of the illicit practices linked to the NNPC and the World Bank operations in Nigeria which “further dips Nigeria’s image into the soak-away of global disrepute under the president’s watch.”
JODER, the foremost media and democratic rights group called on the president to give hope to local and international observers of the ugly trend by setting up a judicial enquiry that would investigate the series of criminal practices associated with the World Bank officials and the NNPC.
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The Minister for Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye had alleged that Nigerian World Bank officials take 40% from all loans obtained by Nigeria.
She also claimed that some members of the National Assembly did demand and receive bribe from loans collected on behalf of 200 million Nigerians while minister(s) were entitled to 5% of the loan.
JODER said the World Bank officials were both Nigerians and their alleged European rogue cartels whose main motive was to keep Nigeria as a satellite state that would never develop, hiding under the pretence of false assistance and development partnership.
On the scandal in the oil and gas sector, the Chairman, Dangote Refinery said some NNPC officials had set up refineries in Malta with a plot that would automatically stifle the prospect of oil and gas production and destroy indigenous growth of the industry at the home front.
The media group described the two revelations on the World Bank and the NNPC as the “biggest scam in African recent history.”
“The first action we expect from President Tinubu is to suspend NNPC officials whose names have been associated with the scam. The NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, and the Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed, should be suspended immediately. The federal government should also demand immediate suspension of the World Bank representative in Nigeria pending the outcome of the investigation,” the group added.
The group said the allegations by the minister and Dangote had brutally shaken the faith of Nigerians beyond measure raising the fear that redemption was impossible.
“The president needs to give hope to a despairing population that seems to have resigned to hopelessness and frustration. These two issues of high level corruption must never be swept under the carpet. A probe is what is necessary for Nigeria to regain a bit of her totally lost reputation on the global map,” JODER said.
“With these revelations, it shows clearly that World Bank loan is a big scam, a conscious plot to stunt Nigeria’s search for economic freedom.
“It shows the loans largely go into private pockets. Little wonder Nigerian government officials are desperate to seek loans all the time, which the National Assembly is always anxious to approve, but not for development but to largely oil the pockets of private individuals.”
JODER described the developments as “a human tragedy of unprecedented proportion.”
