Abuja—A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and national chairman of Tinubu Support Network (TSN) Engr. Kailani Muhammad, yesterday said besides the military, traditional rulers and governors have been involved in stealing oil for decades.
Muhammad who is also director-general of Amalgamated APC Support Groups, stated this while reacting to the recent allegation by Asari Dokubo that 99 percent of oil theft in the oil-rich Niger Delta is being perpetrated under the watch of the Nigerian Army and Nigerian Navy.
According to the Leadership News, Kailani alleged some top traditional rulers and governors are not left out in the high-scale oil theft running into billions of dollars since 1983.
He said “Oil theft is not just about the military. It involves some traditional rulers and governors and they started in 1983. They are very powerful people.
“So Mr. President has to step up, stand on his feet and be ready to deal with anyone found sabotaging our source of revenue because we operate a mono-economy.
“We depend on oil for survival as a country and the best Tinubu can do for himself is to put a stop to it so he can have resources to deliver his ‘renewed hope” campaign mantra to the citizens”, he stressed.
He however urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to extend the investigation into activities of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to the period when Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi served as helmsman of the apex bank.
He said the news or rumour of the former apex bank Governor Sanusi calling for the release of Emeifele sends a signal that even Sanusi may not be a saint hence he too should be investigated accordingly.
According to Kailani, Sanusi Lamido has integrity questions hanging on his neck which led to his removal by former President Goodluck Jonathan around 2014 which Tinubu should not ignore.
“We have been seeing the former Governor of the CBN, Sanusi Lamido around the presidential villa and other public places and that was a source of concern to us. We want to advise that Mr. President doesn’t listen to him.
“In fact, we want the investigation extended to his tenure as a former CBN Governor. There were a lot of issues hanging on his neck which made former President Jonathan to suspend him.
“We also know that Emefiele is his boy.
He too should be investigated alongside Emefiele so they can bring out our money for developmental purposes”, he said.
With regards to the appointment of new service chiefs, he said, the President has put the round pegs in a round hole, he stated however that, “let the Service Chiefs and other security leaders come together because what we used to have until now is weak inter-agency collaboration.
“Some of them will just keep intelligence within instead of sharing it with other sister agencies. But, if they can come together and form a formidable force, we will finish with the issue of insecurity in this country and our lives and economy will be better for it.
“So let us hope that things will go well. We will be talking to them through press conferences from time to time to tell Nigerians the situation report as this administration goes into its first 100 days in office and we hope it is going to be very positive, especially with what we have seen Tinubu doing in less than his first three weeks in office as President”.
He said, President Tinunbu has started on a very sound footing, doing what his predecessor couldn’t do such as the signing of the Student loan bill, subsidy removal, electricity bill among others.
He further said, “Nigeria will be a Haven under Tinubu” while urging all and sundry to give him maximum support to reposition the country.