Panama Scandal: Buhari Govt In Hot Water As Civil Society Demands Probe

By Alltimepost.com

Anti-corruption crusader, Retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration appears to be sitting in hot water as a coalition of Nigerian Civil Society Organizations took to the Streets on Tuesday, demanding a probe into the recent Panama scandal in which a wide array of past and current Nigerian leaders and Businessmen were fingered.

The Panama papers scandal published by a German newspaper, Suddeutsche Zeitung last Monday is regarded as the biggest leak in the history of money laundry, a phenomenon that now appears to cast a dark shadow on the credibility of the Buhari Administration.

It was a bombshell that delivered a revelation of how world leaders, celebrities, athletes, FIFA officials and criminals hide their money with the use of anonymous shell corporations all over the world, allegedly aided and abetted by a secretive Panamanian Law Firm, Mossack Fonseca & Co.

A total number of ten Nigerian Civil society organizations, namely Africa Network for Environment & Economic Justice (ANEEJ), Centre for Democracy & Development (CDD), Tax Justice and Governance Platform (TJ&GP), Say No Campaign (SNC), Social-Economic Rights Accountability Project (SERAP), Civil Society Network Against Corruption (CISNAC), African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), Integrity, Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) and Nigerian Network on Stolen Assets (NNSA) participated in the protest in Abuja, with a petition to the Federal Government, demanding an immediate probe into the scandal.

The organizations also sent the same petition to the Chairman of the nation’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes commission (EFCC) and The Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Abuja.

The following is full text of the petition:

Mallam Abubakar Malami (SAN)
The Attorney-General of the Federation & Minister of Justice,
The Federal Ministry of Justice,
FCT-Abuja,
Nigeria.

Dear Sir,

ON PANAMA PAPERS SCANDAL

We the undersigned civil society coalition groups lend our voice to the global outrage that has trailed the revelations in the Panama Papers of financial corruption. The Panama Papers have revealed that a wide array of past and current Nigerian leaders and businessmen are involved in the scandal. The role-call of the who-is-who was fingered by the Panama Papers include embattled President of the Senate Dr. Bukola Saraki and his wife, former Senate President David Mark and his estranged wife, General TY Danjuma, Chief James Ibori, Aliko and Dantata Dangote, Africa’s richest man and his brother, Mike Adenuga of Globacom, Ibrahim Dasuki, Aminu Jubril, and several others who are still being revealed as beneficiaries of secret arrangements in Panama.

Following this development, the coalition group observed the following:

The Panama Papers showed how politically exposed persons and business men and women, for more than 40 years have been frittering the nation’s wealth to offshore tax havens at the detriment of Nigeria.

While several governments whose nationals have been fingered in the Panama Papers have either made statements for or against an investigation into these questionable tax havens, we find it curious that the Nigerian government is yet to align itself with the popular sentiments trending on the international space.

The Panama revelations have come at a time in Nigeria when very lean financial emoluments accruing from crude oil sales have nearly crippled our economy, subjected the average Nigerian to passing nights at fuel stations, free fall of the Naira against other international currencies and perennial power outages.

Consequently, we have resolved as follows:

We call on the Federal Government of Nigeria to immediately order the investigation of all Nigerians implicated in the report. Since governments all over the world including the US, UK and India, Pakistan, Russia, Ukraine have all responded by analyzing the implications of the Panama Papers, it would not be out of place to ask President Buhari to order the EFCC to investigate Nigerians whose names have featured in the Panama Paper Leak.

We call on the Nigerian government to review our anti-money laundering laws according to global best practices, so as to curtail the ability of Politically Exposed Persons to use their positions to siphon public funds to tax havens.

Government should develop and make public its asset recovery blueprint to send the right signal to the comity of nations that Nigeria is serious this time around with the fight against corruption.

SIGNED:

Africa Network for Environment & Economic Justice (ANEEJ)
Centre for Democracy & Development (CDD)
Tax Justice and Governance Platform (TJ&GP)
Say No Campaign (SNC)
Social-Economic Rights Accountability Project (SERAP)
Civil Society Network Against Corruption (CISNAC)
African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD)
Integrity
Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN)
Nigerian Network on Stolen Assets (NNSA)

Meanwhile, in a telephone chat with Alltimepost.com on Tuesday, the Executive Director of one of the frontline Civil Society Organizations, Rev. David Ugolor stressed the need for the Buhari Administration, to as a matter urgency act on the petition to retain public confidence in the fight against corruption in the country.