A Retired Deputy Director in the office of the National Intelligence Agency, NIA, Ibrahim Ibrahim, has revealed that the seized $43 million from a luxury apartment in Ikoyi, last week, was part of the monies channeled by former President, Goodluck Jonathan, through the NIA, for his party’s 2015 Presidential campaigns.
The Retires Officer, explained that Jonathan approved the monies to be distributed to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP chieftains, but the suspended Director-General of the agency, Ayo Oke, did not do so, for unknown reason.
“A lot of things have happened; a lot of Public Officers have actually drifted away from the disciplined course, and as a result, so many things have happened. The NIA is not an exception at all,” Ibrahim said.
“I think what really happened, was that the money was issued to the agency (NIA), just in the same way it was given to the NSA’s office.
“President Jonathan approved $289 million or so, in November 2014, in excess of the approved budget of the agency.
When asked why campaign funds should be channeled through the NIA, Ibrahim who worked closely with Oke before he retired, said: “As I mentioned, it was intended as campaign funds, and it was diverted. The way money was given to NSA Dasuki, that was the same way it was given to Ayo Oke. It was not meant specifically for the operations of the agency, but a kind of money laundering, for the agency to launder the money for PDP chieftains.“So, that excess was intended as campaign funds, and the agency, the DG NIA in particular, was supposed to disburse the funds, but along the way, he found a way of diverting even that one for his own private use,” Ibrahim said.
“I think they saw that security agencies are a kind of perfect means through which money laundering for such purposes could be done, because it is simply to say the money is for operations,” he said.
On whether it was normal during his days in the NIA to keep monies for covert operations in private buildings, he said: “It’s abnormal; it’s a total lie. There’s no way any operation would be approved, and then it would not be conducted in more than two years. As I said, this money was approved in November 2014, and we’re now in April 2017 – two years plus! It’s not normal.
“Certainly President Jonathan approved some money to be laundered through the agency for campaign purposes, but he did it as if he was giving the agency allocation of funds for their operations, and he did it in excess of their budget,” he said.
Shedding light on the probable source of the funds, he said: “Well, it is possible the money came from the NNPC, and it might have come just directly from the Villa; there’re a number of ways,” he said .
Another credible source with knowledge of the transaction, said the money was released to the NIA over two years ago.
He said this was in compliance with a memo from the Office of the then National Security Adviser, NSA, Sambo Dasuki, retired.
“The money was actually released from the NNPC accounts, shortly before the 2015 general elections; and this was sequel to a memo from NSA, Sambo Dasuki’s office,” the source said.
“Specifically, the memo directed the GMD (Group Managing Director) of the NNPC, to release $45 million to the NIA, for the purpose of espionage in the North-East and the neighbouring Chad, Niger, Cameroon, and Benin, towards combating the Boko Haram.
“Maybe part of the $45 million was used for something else that brought the figure down to $43.4 million, but the actual request for dollars, was $45 million. The other denominations might have been released based on separate memos, the NNPC has money in different denominations, and request for release could be made in any of them depending on circumstances.
“And the fact is, that specific memo for the release of dollars was just one out of many, because at that time, it was very common to see memos from the NSA for release of funds, mostly for security related issues, not necessarily captured in the budget,” he said.
“Also, not much questions are being asked whenever the memos came, because they were mostly based on superior directives from the Presidency, or the office of the Minister of Petroleum Resources.”
Spokesperson to former President, Goodluck Jonathan, could not be reached last night for comments, but he had denied that the former President approved any such money, earlier.
