•UK tightens noose on Nigerian looters
THE British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Richard Gozney, has elaborated on why Plateau State governor, Chief Joshua Dariye, is wanted back in London next month by the Metropolitan Police, insisting that the security agency was beaming its searchlight on all the money laundering allegations levelled against the just reinstated governor with a view to determining their veracity.
Besides, the envoy said his home government was tightening the noose on looters of government funds in Nigeria and other countries around the world hoping to keep such funds in Britain.
According to him, a new law now in place in the United Kingdom (UK) makes it difficult for looters of the government funds to either open bank accounts or purchase properties in UK.
Gozney made these disclosures Friday when he paid a courtesy visit to Vanguard just as President Olusegun Obasanjo said Plateau State House of Assembly ought to have investigated the allegations against Dariye on grounds of morality and ethics.
Obasanjo spoke yesterday in reaction to the decision of the
parliament to reject the advice of the Federal Government to investigate the allegations against the embattled governor.
“The case against him (Dariye) is still being investigated by the Metropolitan Police. And he is due back in the Metropolitan Police Station in London next month. He has not been charged and no restrictions have been imposed on him. But investigations continue and the Metropolitan Police is autonomous”, the High Commissioner said while fielding questions from Vanguard editors during the visit.
Ahead of his reinstatement, November 18, after his suspension for six months, following the emergency rule imposed on Plateau State by the Federal Government, the attorney-general of the federation, Chief Akinlolu Olujimi, had written the state assembly, requesting that money laundering allegations against the governor be investigated
The allegations were based on the investigations of Dariye by the Metropolitan Police which started in May. The attorney-general of the federation, in the letter dated November 10, and addressed to the speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Mr. Simon Lalong, alleged that 300,000 pounds sterling was seized in eight foreign accounts operated by the governor.
Olujimi also claimed that six out of 13 offences, bordering on financial impropriety had been established against Dariye under both Nigerian and British laws. The British envoy said during the Friday visit to Vanguard that the governor would have to report to the Metropolitan Police next month as part of the investigations of the allegations.
Gozney was not specific on the exact date Dariye was being expected for the interrogation. On what would happen if the embattled governor turns down the invitation to report to London, the envoy stressed that the case against him would still go ahead, noting that the British Police “are not going to come here to arrest him anyway". “We cannot send people down here to arrest him”, Gozney emphasized
He, however, indicated that the governor might lose the money if the source was not clearly established. His words: “When it happened like that, in a particular instance, the money was later returned to Nigeria but the law does not say that we have to return it. When we pick somebody up for bringing in money much more than the law requires and such money is thought to have been a product of corruption, the law permits us to seize the money if the person does not explain satisfactorily how he came about it.
“The money can be returned or confiscated depending on the law. We have the right to confiscate it and keep it; or return it... What Dariye’s case is showing is that we are serious in our effort to discourage money laundering. If there is enough suspicion, he will be charged. If the Abacha (the late head of state) family has money in Britain, we will investigate it because we don’t want such money”, the high commissioner pointed out.
Gozney, however, lamented the difficulty in prosecuting such cases stressing that the suspects normally employ good “lawyers that make things difficult”.According to him, the legal action in Britain is normally slowed down by either the thorough and slow nature of the British system itself or the hesitation by concerned countries in taking parallel legal action.
Moral burden President Obasanjo said yesterday that Plateau State House of Assembly should have investigated the allegations against Dariye as demanded by the Federal Government because they bordered on morality. Featuring on the programme, The President Explains, aired on the network of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Obasanjo raised the following posers:
"Is it right when a governor is interrogated and in fact released while on bail and the state assembly of that governor says it is not its business and that state assembly is being paid by the public and that state assembly has members who are Christians and Muslims and the Christians and Muslims didn’t rise up and condemn them? But it is their responsibility to do what they have to do.
It doesn’t matter whether you talk or you don’t talk, this government which I head will continue to fight against corruption. Is it ethically right for a governor to establish an airline while he is still in office? Is it ethically right for a governor to establish radio and television stations while he is still in office, not that he is investing in the public one?
He continued: “In my letter to the national chairman of the PDP, I said it is not a matter of legality, not a matter of politics, not a matter of constitutionality, it is a matter of morality and it happens everywhere. Take the situation of Anambra, it was a great issue of morality. For as long as we continue to put truth in disfavour, we’ll be wallowing in lie, we’ll be wallowing in deceit, we’ll be wallowing in shame, we’ll be wallowing in disgrace, we’ll be wallowing in underdevelopment.”
Charges against Dariye exposes FG’s vindictiveness - CNPP
Meanwhile, Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) has said that the reply by the Plateau State House of Assembly to the charges catalogued against Governor Joshua Dariye by the attorney-general of the federation, Chief Akin Olujimi, has brought into broad relief the vindictiveness, double standards and outright chicanery of the Obasanjo regime.
“To refreshen our memories, the CNPP was of the view that the declaration of emergency rule in Plateau State on May 18, 2004 and the suspension of democratic institutions by President Obasanjo was a constitutional goof”, the coalition said at the weekend in a statement signed by its secretary-general, Mr. Maxi Okwu.
The coalition continued: “The indigene/settler dichotomy in that state is an issue for the sovereign national conference (SNC). Going by constitutional provisions, governors are glorified and impotent chief security officers of their states. The security apparatus of the nation is squarely and effectively under President Obasanjo.
“The current travails of Governor Dariye on allegations of money laundering, corrupt practices and breach of the code of conduct are matters on which we are of the view that he should be prosecuted under due process. What is of main interest to us here, is that the President has again goofed by the way and manner he is approaching the matter. He has deployed against Dariye, Ngige, Ibori, Nwodo, and late Afolabi treatment. That is, deal ruthlessly and selectively against anyone for whom he nurses any grouse or grievance.
“We restate our earlier view that the anti-corruption crusade of his regime is a farce or at best selective and jaundiced. We conclude by saying that hope is not completely lost if Gen. Obasanjo will respond to the call by the Plateau State House of Assembly to make public his asset declaration for public scrutiny. He should also direct all his officials to do likewise. It is only then that an honest and effective anti-corruption campaign can be launched”.
