$43.4m Osbornegate: Nigerians divided over Osinbajo’s panel

While some Nigerians are expressing optimism that the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo-led investigative committee set up by the Federal Government to unravel the true ownership of the $43.4 million found in an apartment in Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, others are of the view that the VP may be merely playing to political gallery, concluding that the committee would only end up vindicating the suspended officials.

The committee is probing Babachir Lawal, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) for allegedly awarding a N200 million contract to a company, Global Vision Limited, linked to him by the Presidential Initiative for the North East (PINE) for the clearing of “invasive plant species” (weeds) in Yobe State; and Ayo Oke, National Intelligence Agency (NIA) director-general is under radar for claiming ownership of the heap of currencies found by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) through the help of a whistle blower.

There were also Nigerians who could not hide their joy since the committee was constituted as they took to social media to express confidence that since the investigation is headed by the VP, transparency would be the panel’s watchword.

While expressing belief that the truth about the money would emerge from the investigation, they however, warned that any ‘covering’ attempt would further erode the credibility of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s anti-corruption crusade.

Tam David-West, a professor and former minister of petroleum told BDSUNDAY that Nigerians should be optimistic about the final outcome of the Osinbajo-led committee, saying that the VP has proven overtime to possess a spirit of excellence.

“I am very pleased that Professor Osinbajo is the head of the committee. He has proven his dependability when he was Attorney-General of Lagos State. He was responsible for the turning around of the justice system of Lagos State. Osinbajo is not a man that you bribe to pervert justice,” he said.

According to him, the discovery of the huge amount of money in foreign currency is an unacceptable embarrassment to the nation which must not be swept under the carpet for whatever reason and called on Nigerians to take keen interest in the case until the exact owners are found.

“This is shocking and embarrassing. For huge sums of money in hard currency to be hidden away in an Ikoyi apartment when there is acute poverty and hunger in the land is the height of wickedness. But I am hopeful that the owners would be unmasked soon,” he said.

But Taiwo Gbenga, a Port Harcourt-based political commentator, disagreed in strong terms that the Osinbajo panel would tell Nigerians the true owners of the whopping sums of money, saying that the VP is playing to the gallery in order to save the regime from looming embarrassment.

“The committee will end up clearing the NIA boss of wrong doing. They know what they are doing. It is already an indictment on the government for the CBN to say that the money did not pass through it; senior officials at the presidency cannot claim ignorance that the said money has been in the location for over two years,” he tells BDSUNDAY.

According to him, even though the money was approved by ex-president Goodluck Jonathan for ‘covert operations’, it was under the present administration that security agents caught a woman who frequently entered the flat, positing that the NIA boss is probably being made to pay for the sin of a senior APC steward.

An analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity said he had no hope of a thorough job by the panel going by recent utterances of the Vice President.

“I was not very comfortable when the Vice President said the other day that Magu did not need the Senate’s confirmation to function as Chairman of the EFCC. He emphatically said that the presidency would not replace him. Again, I read that even after the announcement suspending the NIA DG, he was still able to have a meeting with the Vice President. I am not hopeful of any positive and worthy outcome,” the analyst said.