Yar’Adua Removed COS Over $800 Million Scam!

Contrary to widely held views that General Abdullahi Mohammed, former Chief of Staff to President Yar”Adua resigned on May 29 2008, The Times of Nigeria can reveal exclusively that Mohammed was forced out under a cloud of financial impropriety over a $800 million meant for beefing-up security in the restive Niger Delta.

The Times of Nigeria gathered that in 2003 when there was an upsurge in militant activities resulting in pipelines vandalslizations and hostage takings, a decision was made by the Presidency to in partnership with major oil producers in the country to upgrade the country’s military capacity to deal with the growing problem.

The goal was to make the Joint Task Force better known as JTF a more potent force that could deal a debilitating blow to the swarming groups of militants in the Niger Delta.

Major oil companies such as Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, Total, Agip/ENI etc all contributed to the fund.

However, instead of buying the needed equipment which was supposed to include aircrafts, helicopter gunships and drones for surveillance over the Niger Delta Creeks only a few boats were purchased. Defense sources told The Times of Nigeria that the boats were valued slight under $100 million dollars leaving over $700 million dollars unaccounted for.

Only about $100 million of the $800 million contributed was spent and the remainder of the money has not been returned to the federation account.

12 Boats was given to Bayelsa State, Rivers 15, Delta 14, Akwa Ibo 6, Ondo 2.

As the Chief of Staff to President Obasanjo, Mohammed was in charge of the project and he coordinated directly with the oil companies. Service Chiefs were bypassed by Mohammed and President Obasanjo and Mohammed.

Though Mohammed had written his resignation letter a long time ago, The Times of Nigeria was told by a source close to the inner workings of Aso Rock that while Mohammed submitted his resignation, he also kept mounting pressure on President Obasanjo to convince Yar’Adua to allow him stay to help “stabilize the new administration.”

Yar’Adua reported bought into the gambit but the revelation of the missing $700 million and the possible culpability of his Chief of Staff was too strong to ignore.

The noose started tightening on Mohammed after his friend, former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu was removed. A source told the Times of Nigeria that both Ribadu Mohammed were good friends and Mohammed often interred on Ribadu’s behalf on many occasions.

At the same time, Mohammed also enjoyed protection from Ribadu who refused to investigate the report of the missing money after a petition to that effect was sent to his office

http://www.thetimesofnigeria.com/TON/Article.aspx?id=617

^^^^
$800 Million??

God Help us all

this is just the begining.

The damage done to Nigeria by OBJ & Co will make Abacha smile in his grave and think aloud:

I knew what I was doing when I threw that coward into prison

But why spending $800m to buy arm to fight ND pops when such amount will go a long way in providing them some basic aminities which is what they want. This shows that they are not even regarded at all.

Great Prophet my foot. I wonder what his prophetic power entails: robbery, scamming etc.

@savanaha, the whole "Great Prophet" thing is another auto edit thing that nairaland does, quite irritating to be honest, LOL. Just try writing Mu-hammed without any seperation, pot it and see what happens.
With regards to this whole fiasco, it means nothing unless he is prosecuted. If they are not willing to do it then they should please just shut up.

Watch out for Obj's praise singers. They will be here any minute

presido1:

But why spending $800m to buy arm to fight ND pops when such amount will go a long way in providing them some basic aminities which is what they want. This shows that they are not even regarded at all.

Excellent point!!!! A quarter of that loot would go along way in quelling the restiveness in that area. Nigerian leaders always think with thier rear

Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nigeria. . . . I hail thee!!

Tchinasa**:

Only people who think with their "rear" command/deserve leaders who fart alot!

_{Is this the new and improved almondjoy}

Where do these people get these numbers from?? $800 million dollars??

Kobojunkie:

Where do these people get these numbers from?? $800 million dollars??

Kobo, rapu ihe edere na moto banye moto.

Keep your pants on, I will translate,


Ignore whatever has been inscribed on the back of the vehicle, and just board the damn vehicle 

I am beginning to doubt there is much evidence to support the numbers we keep reading of in the media. I mean to imagine that such companies as Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, Total, Agip/ENI , would contribute to a fund back in 2003 and then not at least look into the use of the money is, to me, questionable. And that no one noticed $700 of that money vanished into thing air and no one noticed for 5 years, is another hole in the story for me.

Kobojunkie:

I am beginning to doubt there is much evidence to support the numbers we keep reading of in the media. I mean to imagine that such companies as Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, Total, Agip/ENI , would contribute to a fund back in 2003 and then not at least look into the use of the money is, to me, questionable. And that no one noticed $700 of that money vanished into thing air and no one noticed for 5 years, is another hole in the story for me.

And why would U wanna believe that these guys are saints

They know the state in which the communities that host most of thier oil wells are in but they dont ask questions. Those guys know it is the Nigerian way and they gladly play along.

Uche2nna:

And why would You want to believe that these guys are saints

They know the state in which the communities that host most of their oil wells are in but they don't ask questions. Those guys know it is the Nigerian way and they gladly play along.

Not that I believe they are necessarily saints but even if I be thief , I no go take am easy if another person steal from me. I mean $700 million no be joke in the world of thieves.

I agree that the amount of money quoted is mind boggling. However, we dont know what the catch is.

And moreover, I respond to posts like this but I know well enuff to go quoting thses guys somewhere else. News items most of the time are sensationalised.

I agree with Kobo. Thats a whole lot of money to have been swept under the carpet for 5 years, even with Ribadu's connivance.
And why quietly retire such a person? Nigerians deserve to know why this man was retired. It is just a case of one big man covering up for another. Business as usual, the Nigerian way. God help us.

What stinks is not the ammount at all, what stinks as usual is people that are part of the government claiming this one stole this this one stole that and yet nothing is done about it. Fine, i won't be surprised if money was stolen, however if there is no drive to prosecute why bore us with such trite? OBJ said he spent $6.5billion on power, house chairman went on BBC a few weeks ago and said so far they have recovered about $13billion and Yaradua said it is $10billion. Thinking this is about figures is not seeing the whole point. How many people have ever been successfully prosecuted and justifiably punished as a result of all of this rubbish? Someone will steal billions, his colleague will say he stole and then it ends there? This thing has happened too many times so if they are not going to do a thing about it then coming to tell us is just some really twisted self righteous, hypocritical trite. This is so frustrating because it is reminding me of when whatever his name was said the house was full of 419ers and he had evidence. What happened afterwards?? After all the hype he backed down and the excuse given was basically that his friends said they will not play with him anymore if he blabbed. Can you imagine? Just think about that for a second. With all the corruption in Nigeria, someone refused to take the opportunity to expose a lot of people and even possibly bring down some very highly placed so called "untouchables" and help the country and that was the excuse he gave for chickening out? Didn't the house now say they wanted to clear their name so they will hold a committee? What happened with the committee investigation into the allegation? Sometimes it feels we have short term memory. That guy should have been prosecuted after claiming he had evidence. If they are not bold enough and are too big a coward to take a stand against wrong then please these people should stop boring Nigerians with such news. The average Nigerian can guess where money has been siphoned and stolen, i mean, police equipment fund, with all the money and there was no marked improvement and then someone is coming to inform people that there was looting of the fund and it was all a scam. DUUUUH. So now they told us, what did they do? Another investigation, another fiasco, couple of weeks time Nigerians forgot everything waiting for the next one to be anmounced. Soon we will be informed there was also siphoning of funds and emmbezzlement and corruption linked to federal roads also and then that would also be shocking? If there is no plan on prosecuting then please why open mouth to insult 140million people? Yaradua's rule of law means nothing if the law is not enforced. There still exists the law for some people and the law for everyone else. So when rule of law is mentioned which rule of law is it? Is it the one for some people or the one for everyone else? Or is there any drive to make the law applicable to everyone? SICKENING

all these spate of revelations seem to have taken a life of their own to be honest.

I am not sure I believe any of them any more. They might have been thievery, but
prolly not to the extent which is being claimed.

Only about $100 million of the $800 million contributed was spent and the remainder of the money has not been returned to the federation account.

hmmmmmmmmmmmm. . .na today?
funny thing is the "Great Prophet" involved in all this. . .
this is just plain ridiculous. . .why is a whole country with more than 120,000,000 million citizens allowing this?
ah ah. . .president after each president are just looting the country, stealing like it's legal. . . knowing nothing will be done abt it
wake up and smell the poisoned coffee Nigeria, is there no end to their crime?
$800 bleeping million. . .do you know how many children/ elders that could feed, that could atleast clean up part of Lagos, build companies for those jobless people to work. . .Nna nawa o

doyin13:

all these spate of revelations seem to have taken a life of their own to be honest.

I am not sure I believe any of them any more. They might have been thievery, but
prolly not to the extent which is being claimed.

Exactly! These numbers, to me, are outrageous. I find it all hard to accept that they are close to real. I need more proof, anything!

Kobojunkie:

Exactly! These numbers, to me, are outrageous. I find it all hard to accept that they are close to real.

where did Nigeria even get the $800 million sef?
If the country is this rich, why are the ppl suffering?
am beginning to think that those yeye presidents have cold stone as heart

abi ooo, this paper go print sey this one take so so so million dollar. Another one go print sey another steal billion dollars and so on. By the time you add everything all up, you go dey think say we get some kind money mint/pump wey no dey dry up for inside that country.

Kobojunkie:

abi ooo, this paper go print sey this one take so so so million dollar. Another one go print sey another steal billion dollars and so on. By the time you add everything all up, you go dey think say we get some kind money mint/pump wey no dey dry up for inside that country.

lmao

But why spending $800m to buy arm to fight ND pops when such amount will go a long way in providing them some basic aminities which is what they want.

[b][/b]

Abi oo, with oour yeye politicians and leaders. Instead of them to just give these people thier basic needs and a suitable living conditions, they're spending 800 million to beef up security.

What a JOKE!!!!

$800mil is nothing for security.

I remember clearly that $260mill contract was given to an Isreal company in 2006 to provide drones for Niger-Delta.

US complained that it should be open-award since they also want their firms to chop-chop.

In recent days, several Israelis arrived in the Nigerian capital of Abuja to staff and develop the offices of Aeronautics Ventures. Maoz Steinhauer stands at the helm of the company, which is listed abroad. Aeronautics Ventures is the operant branch in the largest arms deal ever landed by the Yavneh-based Aeronautics Defense Systems company. A report regarding the $260 million deal appeared in Haaretz about a month ago.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=721509

lol

Kobojunkie,

Let me tell u the truth here. $700 million is a peanut to these oil coys, put together. Do you think they pay the right taxes? Do you think they declare the exact crude oil sold? Do you know how much they spend, settling some politicians in the states?

Even if they wanted to raise any eyebrow, the accused would remind them of their own illegalities. So na case of thief give, thief take o.

But who is the Great Prophet

ono:

But who is the Great Prophet

Hausa/Fulani/Yoruba Corrupt Politicians