| 21 govs have foreign
accounts - NGO
By MARIAM ALESHINLOYE-AGBOOLA, Jos
Thursday, October 7, 2004
A Non-government Organisation based in the United Kingdom,
Nigerians for Justice, Equity and Fairness, has alleged that
at least 21 serving governors in Nigeria have not less than
two million pounds in their accounts ,in overseas countries.
Reacting to allegations made against Governor Joshua Dariye,
the NGO stated that the list of governors with their bank
accounts would be made available to the Nigerian government
through the Nigerian House at No 9 Northumberland Avenue in
London this week.
The coordinator of the NGO who was in Jos, to address a press
conference, Dr Jacob Abdalla, said the Nigerian government,
should in the interest of fairness, publish the list of such
individuals, including their bank accounts and assets "just
as Dariye’s account had been published in the Nigerian
dailies."
The NGO stated that it would also seek assurance from the
Nigerian House that it would be willing to put the information
in the public domain so that Nigerians would know the truth
about their politicians.
Stating the NGO’s interest, Dr Abdalla pointed out that
after the publication of Dariye’s alleged money laundering,
the organisation decided not only to look at Dariye’s
case but also other serving governors.
He said the group found that of the 36 serving governors,
21 of them had doff-shore bank accounts, adding that there
were also indirect transactions which they believed based
on trend of transactions, belonged to ministers and senators.
He gave an instance where the NGO established a direct relationship
between the visit of a prominent senator to United Kingdom
and a deposit as well as withdrawals from a certain account.
Dr Abdalla stated that the NGO was amazed that it was Nigerian
newspapers and Nigeria world.com that reported that Chief
Joshua Dariye was detained at a London Airport over 1.3 million
Pound and that a similar amount was mentioned as having been
found in his account as well as a staggering sum of 800,000
Pound in cash.
He said NGO became curious, because the British Press being
the most unforgiving in the world did not report such.
"Neither The Sun of London nor the Mirror tabloids, even
the BBC had to quote the Nigerian media."
Dr Abdalla said the NGO was also curious on how such amount
would have passed both the British and Nigerian Airport checks
in those days of tight airport security.
The NGO was also curious on how, 30 minutes after Governor
Dariye left the police station, the information was floating
on Nigerian world.com website.
He pointed out the NGO had provided some reports to the Nigerian
authority, directly or indirectly and positive result had
resulted from them, stressing that the NGO is therefore not
holding brief for Governor Joshua Dariye but was only stating
the truth.
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