TheCable

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the federal government of trying to suppress the audit report on the missing $20 billion oil money, saying the deadline for the release of the report, which was set by the government itself, has passed.

Speaking on Saturday through Lai Mohammed,  its spokesman, the party recalled that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, coordinating minister of the economy and minister of finance, herself said at the Financial Times Africa Summit 2014 in London in October that the report would be ready in November 2014.

It quoted the minister as saying at the forum on October 6, 2014: “We engaged PriceWaterHouseCoopers with the auditor general of the federation taking the lead. They asked for 16 weeks to complete the work; they have spent 11 or 12 weeks so far and they will be done in a couple of weeks.”

The APC argued: “Adding the remaining four weeks for the conclusion of the report, as requested by the auditors, meant that it should have been ready by latest November 7, 2014.”

“It is now over a month since the deadline for the release of the report expired, and the government has simply kept mum on the report, apparently in an effort to sweep the issue under the carpet, as it has done with all other reports of widespread corruption under the present dispensation.

“However, Nigerians will not allow this to happen. They will continue to demand that the audit report be made public, in the interest of transparency. We also believe that the minister of finance should strive to protect whatever is left of her international reputation by living up to her words that the issue will not be swept under the carpet. It is not only Nigerians but the entire international community who are interested in the outcome of the audit.

“If there is any reason why the report has not been released, the minister should immediately come out and tell Nigerians. Otherwise, she should release the report today so that Nigerians will know exactly how much of their oil funds is missing and those to be held responsible for the unprecedented heist.”

The party maintained that it would not believe the stories making the rounds that the government was sitting on the report because it was indicted and some powerful personalities in the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan were indicted, too.

“In announcing the forensic audit of the money unaccounted for, Okonjo-Iweala said the president supported it and asked for it to be done. Now that it has been done? Why has the report not been released, even if it implicates the government itself? it queried.

It argued that the urgent release of the report would end the rumour that the missing money was the source of slush funds being used for Jonathan’s reelection campaign, as well as the speculation that the same missing money formed the source of the funds that were round-tripped to the Jonathan campaign fund during his recent fundraising.

“Overall, a government that went cap-in-hand to borrow $1 billion to better equip the military in its fight against Boko Haram should not hesitate to get to the root of $20 billion missing oil money. Had that money not indeed been missing as alleged, would the government have needed to borrow $1 billion to pep up the Boko Haram war?”

“We are therefore joining the millions of Nigerians who have demanded the urgent release of the audit report. Failure to do so before the end of the year will leave Nigerians with no choice than to conclude that the government is indeed hiding something about the missing $20 billion, a conclusion that will indeed be more than justified.”