By Doris Isreal Ijeoma
The Chairman of the Special Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property under the administration of former President, Muhammadu Buhari, Barrister Okoi Obono-Obla, has revealed how he investigated multibillion-dollar fraud cases while in office.
Obono-Obla, in an interview with Vanguard, noted that part of the cases he investigated that landed him in trouble was when they found 80 armoured-plated Mercedes Benz S Class in the premises of an Abuja-based federal director.
He further stated that he made an effort to recover $7 billion CBN bailout, before he was eventually removed from office.
Speaking on the cases he investigated, he said, “I can not pinpoint all the cases that landed me in trouble. But I can speculate on some of them, including the effort to recover $7 billion CBN bailout, the investigation of the failure of an oil company to pay the balance of $1.9 billion from an oil block it purchased in 2014 for $2.5 billion; investigation of the 80 armoured plated Mercedes Benz S Class found in the premises of an Abuja based federal director.
“Investigation of some Directors in the defunct Petroleum Equalization Fund whom we found had over five billion and hundreds of thousands USD in their accounts, including properties abroad, investigation of $12.5 million contract awarded by the Nigerian Ports Authority to a company owned by a former Senator and present Governor to dredge the channel leading from the Atlantic Ocean into Calabar port which was not executed.
“Investigation of oil companies that refused to remit over $3 billion as royalties to the federal government, investigation of the purchase of a House in Asokoro Abuja by a then serving federal permanent secretary in the name of her 8-year-old son, investigation of offshores assets of some members of the National Assembly, investigation of the failure of commercial banks to remit over N38 trillion collected by them as stamp duties as at 2019 to the federal government, and investigation of the take over illegally of the building belonging to National Board for Technical Education in Maitama, Abuja by a Nigerian billionaire from Katsina State to mention just but a few.”
