The Buhari Media Support Group (BMSG) has expressed outrage on the huge volumes of stolen funds traced to former Petroleum Minister, Mrs Diezani Alison Madueke, stating that the monies if judiciously used could funds major capital projects in Nigeria.
The group said speficially that the monies allegedly looted by Diezani are enough to fund the construction of world class airports in each geo-political zone of the federation.
In a statement issued today in Abuja, the group said that the sum of N47.2 billion and $487.5 million in cash and property traced to Mrs. Madueke by the EFCC is also enough to complete the Lagos-Kano and Lagos-Calabar rail lines for which the federal government has been borrowing monies.
The statement signed by BMSG Chairman, Hon Austin Braimoh and its Secretary, Chief Cassidy Madueke said that the recovered loot is also enough to fund agriculture projects that could have generated employment for Nigerian youths.
Based on the development, the group called on Nigerians join hands to condemn the massive looting of the nation’s treasury by officials of previous administrations.
According to the statement, BMSG believes that the loot traced to the former Minister of Petroleum is a far cry from what she and others in the past governments pilfered from the national treasury and stashed in foreign accounts, thereby forcing the Nigerian economy to suffer instant depression.
The group recalled that Diezani and her cronies including Mr. Kola Aluko, Jide Omokore and others are currently being tried by the US government for money laundering running to over $1.7 billion.
BMSG opined that a collective resolve by Nigerians to fight what it described as “psychotic and mindless’’ type of looting as exhibited by Diezani and others in their hey days in government, can halt the crave for looting by government officials.
It reminded Nigerians that although the fight against corruption is the foremost policy trust of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, the fight may not attain a maximum result unless Nigerians willingly resolved to join hands with the government to fight the art of lootings and other forms of mismanagement in government.
BMSG, however, expressed dismay that rather than organizing widespread protest to condemn looting and stealing of government funds by officials, past and present as often revealed by the anti-graft agencies, some Nigerians are only dissipating energies on attacking President Buhari, the main fighter of corruption on health matters.
It said that if Nigerians fail to collectively address the problem of corruption by offering practicable solutions and logistics supports for the institutions fighting the scourge, the future of the nation and the general wellbeing of its citizens will constantly be repressed and made forlorn.
The Group commended the anti-graft agencies, in particular the EFCC, for their sustained efforts in exposing corruption in Nigeria, appealing to the agencies not to give up, while ensuring prosecution of culprits of mindless looting of the Nigerian treasury
