Forum urges Buhari to take action GOC, N600m theft

The Leadership Development Forum  (LDF) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to get the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to swing into action on the matter of the controversial N600million theft by officers of the Nigerian army who were reportedly at large.

The forum, in a statement signed by its national chairman, Abubakar Ainu, said it wants “the well-known integrity of President Buhari to be brought to bear on the anti-graft agency, if EFCC’s delay in taking action persisted.”

Recall that national dailies have recently reported how three soldiers made away with N600million while it was being ferried from Sokoto to Kaduna State on the orders of the GOC of Division 8 of the Nigerian Army, who was among the officials escorting the cash.

Ainu, who was also a former chairman of the defunct Congress for Progressives Change, CPC in Sokoto State said insinuation has started making the rounds that the money belonged to the General Officer Commanding Division 8 of the Nigerian army,  saying “this is an embarrassingly weighty allegation, coming at a time Sokoto State electorate were complaining that huge money was quietly spent on the rigging of the 2019 governorship elections in the state”.

Rising from an emergency meeting yesterday, the forum  said it was unthinkable if such an amount would be earmarked for military operations in a single Nigerian State and faulted the alleged “movement of cash from Sokoto to Kaduna by road, using military vehicles and not the CBN Bullion Van as was the practice”.

The statement further said there were “too many gaps in the news about the N600million that will warrant EFCC’s immediate intervention by way of thorough investigation”.

The forum also stated that, “with the integrity credentials of President Muhammadu Buhari as our no-nonsense President, this matter should not have taken more than 48 hours before the EFCC swings into action, because this kind of cash movement in a cashless economy is clearly suspicious”.

“By the time EFCC takes up this case of suspicious movement of cash, Nigerians, especially the poor people of Sokoto would be happy to know the truth and nothing but the truth.

“It’s time to end the suspicion in Sokoto that uniformed personnel were allegedly used through cash inducement to rig the governorship polls in 2019 in that state”, the group advised.

The statement also noted that “the confidence with which the young soldiers made away with the money raises questions about whether the cash was meant for any official operations or being hoarded for personal use,” the statement said.