Our Penchant for Complicating Simple Things
Iremember the theories of the late Dr Chuba Okadigbo, the fiery former senate president. In those days, as a reporter, we used to have lengthy discussions largely on the state of the nation at his Ogedengbe Street, Apapa GRA, in Lagos. It was the heyday of the military government. And Okadigbo would say the hoarding of information gives room to conspiratorial conclusions and moves. He was (and still) right. In the absence of official information, the rumour mill gets active and fills the void. That exactly is what is happening on the Ikoyigate saga where N13 billion (in various hard currencies} was recovered from the private home of a yet-to-be-known person in a residential (Osborne) tower. More than one week after the news broke that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recovered the money, there is still so much fog around who owns either the apartment where the money was found or the money itself.
That should ordinarily not be a complex thing to establish. The said tower surely belongs to somebody. He/She can be identified and located. The tower might be under the management of an estate agent who in turn knows all the tenants in the building, including their profiles and pictorial identities. So why is it looking like a mystery that can be unraveled only by a Jewish astrologer?
No doubt, the EFCC’s silence on their findings is fuelling the rumour mill. It feeds the theory that some wuru-wuru is taking place.
I worry about the curious quiet of the EFCC who lit the fire in the first place by announcing the recovery of the cash without establishing investigative fundamentals. And so not many people believe the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) which has claimed that the money belongs to it. The claim had left too many questions spilling out of lips. Is it the practice for an agency of government, for instance, to warehouse its funds in a private residence? Does it mean it is the NIA that rented the apartment? If yes, for what? Storage of hard currency! What happened to the CBN and the TSA policy of the government? And pray, does the NIA not have an internal vault where it can keep such huge fund?
Worse still, the NIA claimed that the money was approved for it by the Jonathan administration. That government ceased to be, almost two years ago. Is NIA saying that money has been sequestered in that apartment for almost two years? In any case, what was the money ever meant for? Are these questions difficult to answer or answers found for them by the EFCC?
Interestingly, the controversial anti-graft agency last Tuesday submitted a report on the recovery to Mr President. It is not certain what the content of the report is. But it may have led to the suspension of the DG of the NIA, Ambassador Ayo Oke. The prima facie interpretation of that action is that the presidency is not enamoured by the NIA claim to the money. From all indications, there is certainly more to all the drama we are watching.
Thankfully a presidential committee headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, a SAN and professor of Law, is expected to investigate and submit its findings in two weeks (as at last Wednesday). Nigerians cannot wait to see the end of this queer drama.
Indeed, it is the curious silence of the EFCC as to the authentic details of the recovered cash that led the governor of Rivers State, Mr Nyesom Wike to claim, in most unabashed manner, that the recovered cash belongs to his state, alleging that it is the proceed of the sale of the state’s IPP by the former Rivers State governor, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, the present Minister of Transportation. It was such an unguarded talk! Was the Rivers IPP sold for N13 billion? Wike has become so garrulous that he seldom thinks before talking. Or else he would have realised that Rivers IPP was not sold for the sum of the recovered cash. It betrays a desperation to undo his arch-rival, Amaechi by hook or crook. Desperate people are dangerous people! And when he speaks, both in content and in style, he speaks un-gubernatorially. His actions and utterances are bereft of the honour and grace associated with the office.
Already, he has threatened some unstated action if the Federal Government does not hand over the recovered cash to him within seven days. Nigerians are waiting to see his next line of action, as it would be seven days in a short while. This is the same governor whose allegedly recorded phone call in the last rerun election in the state, captured his threat to kill an INEC official if his bidding was not done. It is a function of complicating otherwise simple things that has made that matter to appear dead despite the promise of the Nigerian Police to probe the threat. Many Nigerians have not forgotten how Wike’s wonky gubernatorial election caused the death of many innocent persons in the state. It was a bloody election, like no other in the state.
Back to the matter in hand, perceptive Nigerians are not exactly surprised about the complication of this present issue. When on March 14 the same EFCC said it recovered some N49 million packed in five abandoned bags at the Kaduna International Airport, Nigerians have been left in the dark, more than one month after, about the identities of those who abandoned the said cash there. Not even the CCTV device in the airport could pick the images of the carriers of those bags? It has remained yet foggy. No probe panel was set up.
Earlier this month, the EFCC also recovered some N450 million abandoned in a shop at Legico Shopping Complex, Lagos. Till date, no information on it. Again, no probe panel was set up.
Few days after, the EFCC again, announced that it recovered the sum of N250million from a Bureau De Change in Balogun Market, in Lagos. Yet again, no clue on the owner of the money.
Then last week, there was this great haul of cash from the Osborne Towers. Two sets of entities (NIA and Rivers State Government) have laid claim to the money, just as the ownership of the tower has remained shrouded in worrisome secrecy.
But unlike the previous cases, the EFCC had to do a special report on this recovery and submitted same to the president. Nigerians are curious as to why this recovery is being specially treated.
Tracing and tracking the owners of these recovered cash has suddenly become more mysterious than how water got into coconut.
Nigerians want to know who dun it, as the American would say.