Jonathan’s Aide Tells EFCC to Prosecute APC Leaders for Alleged Economic Crimes

* Says false accusation against former president criminal
offence

Former aide to former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, Mr. Reno
Omokri, has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) to
investigate and prosecute leaders of the ruling All Progressives
Congress (APC) for falsely accusing the former president of
economic crimes.

Omokri rested his call on the confessional statement by a former
spokesman of the APC, Chief Timi Frank, that the ruling party
fabricated outright lies against Jonathan that the former president
engaged in economic and financial crimes.

He said this had not only vindicated the former leader, but had
exposed the APC to be a propagandist organisation that used and
uses fraud and economic sabotage to destroy Nigeria.

Frank had revealed that damaging allegations made against
Jonathan were deliberate falsehoods, fabricated by leaders of the
APC without any thought spared for the economic impact on the
nation.

The party leaders had alleged that under the watch of the
Jonathan administration $49 billion was missing and unaccounted for
from the Federation Account and the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC), and that the ex-president had emptied out the
Excess Crude Account.

These false allegations, he said, were made in a desperate power
grab, but added that they led to a massive loss of confidence in
the Nigerian economy, leading to capital flight. These acts of
economic sabotage were deliberate and are criminal.

He said the EFCC was established by the Peoples Democratic
Party’s administration of former president, Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo, and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to identify, prevent and
punish financial crimes against the Nigerian state.

According to him, it is a financial crime to knowingly make
false allegations against the Nigerian government’s Economic
Management Policy for the purpose of undermining it and weakening
it so that an individual or organisation can profit from such
undermining.

Based on the confession and testimony of Frank, it is clear and
established that the APC leaders committed a crime against Nigeria,
in that they knowingly subverted the Nigerian economy and turned
the then third fastest growing economy in the world to the present
world headquarters for extreme poverty.

“As such, both the EFCC and the ICPC are called upon to prove
their independence by commencing the investigation, arrest and
arraignment of APC leaders, who made deliberate, false and
misleading statements that not only plunged Nigeria into a
recession, but also led to the loss of over 11 million jobs and
introduced multi-dimensional poverty into the polity,” he said.

According to Reno, “Failure to do so on the part of both the
EFCC and the ICPC, despite a confession by one of the dramatis
personae, should be taken by the Nigerian public as proof that
these law enforcement bodies have since lost the independence they
enjoyed under the PDP, and are now mere appendages of the ruling
party.”

He added: “We ask Nigerians to remember the Good Old Days when
fuel was N87 per litre, the dollar was N199 to $1, a 50kg rice was
N8,000, a Lagos-Abuja return air ticket was N18,000, the N18,000
Minimum Wage was worth $120, a bottle of Coke was N60, a packet of
Indomie noodles was N25, with a tin of Peak milk going for N80,
while Nissan automobile was making cars in Nigeria for export.”

He regretted that the Buhari administration remained unrepentant
in its claims to unproven economic success, including its recent
statement that it had lifted five million Nigerians out of
poverty.

A statement, he pointed out, was outrightly contradicted by the
World Bank, which revealed that poverty in Nigeria has now assumed
‘multi-dimensional’ status.

“We urge Nigerians to note that these economic gains were
eroded, not by the vagaries of the world economy, but by deliberate
sabotage of unpatriotic elements,” he said.

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