$12.5bn Oil Money: Experts Agree With Sanusi’s Call For Probe

Experts in various economic sphere have supported a fresh probe of the alleged missing $12.5 billion oil money under the watch of the outgoing President Jonathan Goodluck, following the ‘unsatisfactory’ report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) so that the allegation can be appropriately put to rest. The chief executive officer of Economic Associates, Dr Ayo Teriba, said it would be very difficult to disagree with the Emir of Kano and former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Muhammad Sanusi II, who is calling for a fresh probe of the missing $12.5 billion after the PWC had probed the issue and submitted its report because as a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), he might have information that is not in the purview of the public.

Teriba, who had worked as an economist at the Lagos Business School, Lagos Chamber of Commerce, as well as a consultant to the World Bank and a visiting consultant to the IMF advised, “I think the incoming administration of General Muhammadu Buhari should focus more on the economy as there seemed to be a lot of issues that needed to be probed which could distract him.”

For the chief executive of the Financial Market Dealers Association, Wale Abe, he noted that there seems to be a public consensus that there be a forensic audit as far as the PWC report is concerned. He stated that it is left for the government “especially a government that is looking for money in every way, and Buhari has made his position known that he will not permit corruption in any way and that there is need to look at the NNPC. Anything that will encourage probity, I will always support because we all have to subject ourselves to accountability one way or the other. If the majority of the people are not pleased with the report, then I don’t see any reason it should not be subject to further forensic investigation.”

Labour leaders in the country have supported the probe which was put to the fore by Sanusi, insisting that it must done in good faith. The president of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, in a telephone interview, said nothing was wrong with probing the issue. (Leadership)