Missing $49.8 Billion: Jonathan Slams Obasanjo, Sanusi Lamido

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News, Uncategorized Monday, December 23rd, 2013

President Goodluck Jonathan has blasted former President Olusegun Obasanjo describing allegations raised in his controversial open letter, which included alleged missing of $49.8 billion crude sale as false and untrue.

Addressing the issue of the missing funds in his long response to Obasanjo’s letter, Jonathan wondered why Obasanjo would believe and rehash such allegation adding that he should have known better being an ex-president.

Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan

His words: “Baba, I am amazed that with all the knowledge garnered from your many years at the highest level of governance in our country, you could still believe the spurious allegation contained in a letter written to me by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and surreptitiously obtained by you, alleging that USD49.8 billion, a sum equal to our entire national budget for two years, is “unaccounted for” by the NNPC. Since, as President, you also served for many years as Minister of Petroleum Resources, you very well know the workings of the corporation.

“It is therefore intriguing that you have made such an assertion. You made a lot of insinuations about oil theft, shady dealings at the NNPC and the NNPC not remitting the full proceeds of oil sales to the of CBN. Now that the main source of the allegations which you rehashed has publicly stated that he was “misconstrued”, perhaps you will find it in your heart to apologize for misleading unwary Nigerians and impugning the integrity of my administration on that score

“Your claim of “Atlantic Oil loading about 130, 000 barrels sold by Shell and managed on behalf of NPDC with no sale proceeds paid into the NPDC account” is also disjointed and baseless because no such arrangement as you described exists between Atlantic Oil and the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company. NPDC currently produces about 138, 000 barrels of oil per day from over 7 producing assets. The Crude Oil Marketing Division (COMD) of the NNPC markets all of this production on behalf of NPDC with proceeds paid into NPDC account.”