I found nothing after probing Buhari’s PTF – Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun
Obasanjo on Tuesday said his
administration probed the accounts
of the Petroleum Trust Fund
headed by the All Progressives
Congress presidential candidate,
Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari
(retd.) and found nothing
unpleasant.
Buhari headed the PTF, inaugurated
in March 1995, under the regime of
the late dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha.
The PTF was established to manage
the fund accruable from the
increase in the pump price of
Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise
know as petrol, from N3.25 to N11.
The PTF was scrapped by Obasanjo
on assumption of the Presidency in
1999. The ex-President also set up a
committee to investigate the
accounts of the PTF following
allegations of N25bn fraud in the
agency.
Obasanjo’s fresh revelation was
made in Ogun State when Buhari
and other national leaders of the
APC visited the ex-President at his
Hilltop residence in Abeokuta.
On the Buhari’s entourage were
the APC national chairman, Chief
John Odigie-Oyegun; the party’s
former interim national chairman,
Chief Bisi Akande; a former
governor of Lagos State and a
national leader of the APC, Bola
Tinubu, and the governor of Ogun
State, Ibikunle Amosun, among
others.
Obasanjo said when he looked into
the report submitted to him on the
alleged fraud in the PTF he did not
see anything incriminating
concerning Buhari.
He said, “When you were going to
become the manager of PTF. We
talked about it and when you
finished and I took over, we looked
into it.
“I haven’t said this publicly, I would
say it publicly now. When we
looked into it, there was really
nothing amiss except that that
organisation went from road
building to mosquito net-buying
and all sorts of things.
“And what the investigation
discovered is a bit of inconsistency
in prices and all that. In one area,
mosquito net might have been
given for N50; in another, N45. And I
then remarked that this is fishy. We
should look into it.
“And I called my brother and
colleague (Buhari), I said see this
and he said ‘look we are managing
billions of Naira and I tried to make
sure I see everything.But I will not
say that what they have said about
this is correct or not correct. But I
can assure you, I tried to see
everything.’
“I said okay Muhammadu, between
me, you and God, was there any
personal benefit for you? And you
said ‘no.’ I said that is the end of
the matter.
“Although there was that
investigation, its report was not of
any material importance.”
Obasanjo asked Buhari and other
presidential candidates to address
the nagging issues of insecurity,
economy and deficit in
infrastructure.
He implored the presidential
candidates to focus on issues rather
than trivialities.
He said, “I hope people will face
issues rather than trivialities. On
occasions like this, issues are very
important. And you have
mentioned three areas which are
demanding issues in Nigeria today.
“I will just beg all of you who are
contesting to add one to it; you
mentioned economy, you
mentioned corruption, and you
mentioned security.
“I will beg of you to add
infrastructure. It’s very important.
You may take it as part of economy
but I will take infrastructure as
special and give it special
attention.”
While he described a political party
as a microcosm of a nation, which
would consist of near saints, devils,
rapists, and armed robbers,
Obasanjo warned that when the
party wanted to go into
government, it must look for men
and women of integrity.
Speaking earlier, Buhari said he
would tackle corruption while the
resources would be used to
address infrastructural deficit.
He said if elected, his
administration would also give
priority to security and fix the
economy, stressing that Obasanjo
had more experience than him and
others in governance.
He said, “It’s a fact that you know
more than all we know about the
problem that we are in. But what
we’ll do is try to convince you to
believe us that we are going to do
better.
“We have been going around three
fundamental issues: security,
economy, corruption. This vicious
circle is what the APC is determined
to break.
“Because without security, there is
no way the country can settle down
not to talk of living in it. So many
people, educated and uneducated,
some said up to 60 per cent, will say
Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gun
powder.
“We believe that if we are able to
stop corruption, a lot of resources
will be available to invest in
infrastructure, get the factories to
reopen, get jobs and get goods and
services. So security, economy, in
terms of employment, production,
manufacturing, goods and services,
and then agriculture will again be
given impetus to employment.”