Buhari: Why I must probe Jonathan

President Muhammadu Buhari has insisted that it was necessary for him to probe the administration of his predecessor Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

The Special Adviser to the president on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, said this was to ensure a proper take-off of the incumbent government.

The presidential spokesman stated this on Friday in his twitter account.

“But for a proper take-off of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, there is need to look into the immediate past government”, Adesina tweeted.

Buhari had disclosed at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC on Tuesday while interacting with Nigerians in Diaspora that his administration had begun receiving documents to prosecute Jonathan’s ministers and other government officials who stole “mind-boggling” oil funds.

The president had earlier appealed to US President Barrack Obama to help Nigeria recover and repatriate about $150 billion allegedly stolen by past government officials.

He had Tuesday specifically told Nigerians in the US that some past government officials were involved in illegal sales and diversion of crude oil funds belonging to the federal government to private accounts abroad.

“We are now looking for evidence of shipping some of our crude, their destinations and where and which accounts they were paid and in which country. When we get as much as we can get as soon as possible, we will approach those countries to frozen those accounts and go to court, prosecute those people and let the accounts be taken to Nigeria,” he said.

“The amount of money is mind- boggling, but we have started getting documents. We have started getting documents where some of the senior people in government, former ministers, some of them plotted as much as five accounts and were moving about one million barrel per day on their own. We have started getting those documents,” Buhari added.

“I assure you that whichever documents we’re able to get and subsequently trace the sale of the crude or transfer of money from Ministries, Departments, Central Bank, we’ll ask the cooperation of those countries to return those monies to federation accounts.

And we will use those documents to arrest those people and prosecute them. This, I promise Nigerians”, the president had said.

Written by Isiaka Wakili