Okoi Obono-Obla, a former Chairman of the Special Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property (SPIP), claims that money collected under previous President Muhammadu Buhari was restored to its owners.

Obono-Obla, a presidential adviser under Buhari, was accused while appearing on the Mic On Podcast.

He also said that the Buhari administration failed to combat corruption, presumably the foundation of people’s trust in him.

Buhari established SPIP as an impartial investigation panel to recover stolen property and assets for the country.

According to Obono-Obla, his efforts to bring many looters to court in the country were hampered by officials from the same administration, notably former Minister of court and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, whom he (Obono-Obla) described as an ‘authoritarian’.

“Some of the things I recovered were returned to the looters. For instance, there was this case of someone from whom I recovered over 80 brand new X-class Mercedes Benz cars (armoured plated) from in Jabi, Abuja.

“I wrote to the DG, Customs to ask if the person paid customs duties of the vehicles, he said ‘No’, they didn’t pay. I wrote to the Federal Inland Revenue Services to know if the person paid tax on the vehicles; he also said ‘No’ and that they don’t have the records. We went to court to get an order of interim forfeiture, and it was granted pending the hearing of the case. So, I sent a memo to Malami to brief him on what we were doing, only for him to tell me that he never mandated me to do things I investigated,” he said.

“I had a petition that there was a recovery of $2 billion dollars and $850 million gold bars from the house of a Minister in Jonathan's government

– Okoi Obono-Obla pic.twitter.com/HehTWUcuyu

— GistReel.Com (@GistReel) June 30, 2024