Army General asks Buhari to probe disappearance of recovered $2.1bn

A retired Army General and anti- corruption crusader, General Adamu Yusuf (rtd) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to probe alleged disappearance of $2.1billion said to have been recovered from the Abuja residence of a top politician in 2015.

Buratai Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General TY Buratai and other top Army personnel Addressing newsmen in Abuja, General Yusuf said he was perturbed that such humongous recovery that was made possible by a whistle-blower, was effectively swept under the carpet, despite the anti-corruption stance of the President Buhari led administration.

He said the money was recovered inside a building situated at Block 6, Flat 1, NNPC Housing Estate, Area 11, Abuja, which belonged to a top politician. According to General Yusuf, following a tip-off by a female whistle-blower, the erstwhile Director General of the Department of State Service, DSS, Mr. Lawal Daura, raided the building and recovered the stashed loot.

He however decried that since October 30, 2015 when the operation took place, the recovered fund was neither accounted for nor any action taken to apprehend or prosecute any culprit. Rather, General Yusuf alleged that “some powerful and untouchable persons” within the presidential villa, vowed to deal with the whistle-blower, forcing her to run out of the country.

He told newsmen that when the matter was initially brought to President Buhari’s attention, he promised to look into it once he was free from budget preparations. “At a point I was so unhappy and I decided to report the issue to General T. Y. Danjuma who is my senior colleague. Alkali: Tsav hails army’s conduct in a letter to Buratai(Opens in a new browser tab) “He stepped in and also met president Buhari who also promised to look into the matter. Unfortunately the President took ill and went for surgery that kept him outside the country for awhile.

“Afterwards, everything concerning the matter went cold again”, General Yusuf lamented. “The president is a good man but the people around him are not telling him the truth. I am requesting for an open enquiry. Buhari scores Saraki, Dogara low in patriotism(Opens in a new browser tab) “I don’t know why those kind of people are close to the president. When we are talking about corruption and how to fight it, it is unfortunate that we have people there that are sitting on corruption.

“I want to give the president the benefit of doubt”, General Yusuf added, noting that his findings revealed that the said recovered loot was not deposited in the Federal treasury or with the Central bank of Nigeria, CBN. Meantime, General Yusuf who disclosed that he retired after 34 years career service in the Army, said he had petitioned both the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, as well as the Federal Ministry of Finance. Commander 1 Brigade emphasizes on Inter-Agency collaboration, cordial civil-military relations to combat insecurity(Opens in a new browser tab) He said he also petitioned the Chief Okoi Obono-Obla led Presidential Investigation Panel for the recovery of public property.

General Yusuf said he was determined to follow the matter up considering that he was the one the whistle-blower came to first before he subsequently passed the information to the then DSS DG. Among other things, he is demanding payment of 20 percent of the recovered loot to the whistleblower, in line with the Federal government policy on whistleblowing.