Fifty-five people, including former governors, Cabinet ministers and<\/p>\n
government workers, stole $9 billion dollars from Nigeria’s treasury, the
\ninformation minister said Monday.<\/p>\n
Lai Mohammed made the allegations as he kicked off a “national
\nsensitization campaign,” appealing to Nigerians to join the fight against
\ncorruption that is crippling what should be a rich nation with Africa’s
\nbiggest economy, population and oil production.<\/p>\n
The looted 1.35 trillion Nigerian naira could have built 36 hospitals or
\neducated 4,000 children through university, Mohammed said. He said it was
\nstolen between 2006 and 2013, when the naira stood at about 150 to the
\ndollar, half today’s value. Mohammed did not identify the 55 accused but
\nsaid bankers and businessmen are among them.<\/p>\n
The funds include $2.1 billion meant to buy weapons to fight Boko Haram’s
\n6-year-old Islamic uprising that has killed some 20,000 people but instead
\nwas diverted to the election campaign of former President Goodluck
\nJonathan and his party, Mohammed said. Jonathan lost March 2014 elections
\nto former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari, who promised to halt
\ncorruption and the insurgency.<\/p>\n
Buhari said Monday that a multinational force has driven Boko Haram into
\n“fall-back positions” and uprooted them from all territory they held.<\/p>\n
Mohammed denied that the war against corruption was a vendetta against the
\nopposition. He said, “If we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill
\nNigeria.”<\/p>\n
Nigeria’s judiciary is critical to the fight, he said. Three different
\ncourts have granted bail to Jonathan’s former national security adviser,
\nSambo Dasuki, who is accused of being instrumental in the theft of the
\n$2.1 billion and has said he diverted the money on Jonathan’s orders.
\nBuhari has said he will not allow Dasuki out of detention.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fifty-five people, including former governors, Cabinet ministers and government workers, stole $9 billion dollars from Nigeria’s treasury, the information minister said Monday. Lai Mohammed made the allegations as he kicked…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n