afrol News, 1 March - A Senate panel set up to probe the Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, issued a report yesterday accusing the VP of diverting US$ 145 million of public funds to his personal coffers. Mr Abubakar is one of the most prominent candidates in this year's presidential polls in Nigeria.

The Senate panel report accused Mr Abubakar of abusing his office by "aiding and abetting the diversion of public funds in the sums of US$ 125 million and US$ 20 million respectively approved for specific projects."

Mr Abubakar has always maintained his innocence, accusing Nigerian authorities of witch-hunting him principally for blocking President Olusegun Obasanjo's tricks to seek for an unconstitutional third term in office.

On 20 February, Justice Umaru Abdullahi of an Abuja appeals court ruled that President Obasanjo has no legal powers to sack Mr Abubakar from the vice-presidency for merely shifting his political allegiance.

Justice Abdullahi therefore ruled that Mr Abubakar should remain the VP of Nigeria, giving him at the same time the right to pursue his presidential ambitions in competition with President Obasanjo's party.

Mr Abubakar's camp warned the Nigerian government to desist from tactics that aim to elbow out their candidate from the presidential race. The government had announced his sacking as soon as he declared his intentions to run on the ticket of the opposition Action Congress (AC).

His AC party officials described the new Senate report as a yet another plot by the government cooked against Mr Abubakar.

The latest report is now awaiting for final decision by the Abuja Senate. But Mr Abubakar is immune from prosecution as long as he functions as Nigeria's VP.

The panel report said the VP had fraudulently converted part of the funds as loans to three companies - Network Digital Television (NDTV), Mofas Shipping Company Limited and Transvari Services Limited. It recommended that Mr Abubakar be "sanctioned for any offences disclosed."

The said moneys, which were disbursed through the Petroleum Technology Development Funds, were earmarked for training purposes. They were under the supervision of the Vice President.

Network Digital Television is a private telecommunications company that has business through US congressman William Jefferson via iGate, a US-based information technology company.

The report added that an amount of US$ 142-million loaned to the said companies is yet to be uncovered.

After receiving a tip-off in a letter he had received from an American legislator last year, President Obasanjo is reported to have ordered the efficient national anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to investigate the scam allegedly involving his own VP.

Having got the findings of both the EFCC and the administrative inquiry, President Obasanjo sent them to the Nigerian parliament. This opened gates to the setting up of the senate panel inquiry.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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