The Presidency has debunked the claim by the suspended Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ayo Oke, that the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, was aware of the $43.4m stashed away at a private apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos.
A government official told journalists yesterday that in the first instance, “Oke did not brief the NSA at all about the existence of such funds-$289M- or the projects they were meant for when the Buhari administration took office in May 2015, even though the money had been released in March the same year.
The official stated: ‘The NSA office got its first knowledge of the existence of such funds during the work of the presidential committee that audited the Defense Equipment Procurement in the Armed Forces. The Committee had observed certain payments from the CBN to the NIA and raised questions drawing the attention of the NSA.
‘When the suspended DG of the NIA discovered that that Committee was raising questions and to forestall the NSA from “blowing the cover,” he then gave his first report to the NSA on the existence of such funds and warned that the Committee’s job does not cover the activities or the spendings of the NIA.
“The Presidential Committee on Audit of Defense Equipment Procurement, in the course of its assignment came across information that the NIA received a huge sum of money in early 2015 from the former president. Based on this the NSA carried out a preliminary investigation during which the NIA claimed the money was released for some projects aimed at commencing the agency’s 30th anniversary. This was in January 2017.”
‘Subsequently, a team was constituted to ascertain the situation. The first suspicion of a potential abuse was noticed at this stage, according to sources, especially considering the amount of money involved and the purposes stated.
“This was how the NSA and the Presidency learnt of the existence of such funds. We were not told by anyone in NIA until the Committee saw something, and raised a red flag. However, when the embattled NIA top spy was now compelled to explain what was happening, “he still did not inform anyone in the Federal Government or presidency that he kept $43m of the said funds in cash at a private apartment anywhere in Lagos or any part of the country.”
“This is the issue: the NSA was not told that NIA had this lump cash stashed away in the place it was eventually discovered by the EFCC. In any case, extant rules are clear that such monies ought only to be placed in the NIA headquarters or in CBN vaults.
“There are also instances where CBN actually paid out some of the funds directly to some NIA contractors, raising questions on why the suspended NIA needed to put aside such huge cash in a private apartment.
“The projects for which the former President approved the funds totalling $289m included two in Lagos whose cost were put at about $28m, which is way less than the $43m cash found in the Ikoyi apartment. Sources explained further that as at January this year, funds for the Lagos projects had actually been released to the tune of $18m, meaning only about $10m was left to be paid four months ago, before $43m was found in the Lagos apartment recently.
“So let us even assume that the NIA DG wanted to keep funds in Lagos for the Lagos based projects, he did not need that much for the total of the Lagos projects at all. And apart from that it is completely untenable to stash away agency money in a private apartment instead of keeping it with the CBN or inside the NIA head office where the money would be well-secured and its disbursement well protected”.
Meanwhile, a source close to the NIA, yesterday insisted that the DG of the agency, Ayo Oke, briefed the president on the issue.
“The first briefing was in April, 2015, on the general state of the agency. The funds were itemised as $289 million intervention fund approved and released to the agency by the Jonathan administration in November 2014. The second briefing was in January 2016, in a memo to the NSA, the Director General gave more details of the funds. Based on the second briefing, (memo) the NSA set up an audit team, headed by a Brigadier General which inspected the projects and submitted a report in February, 2016. The NSA wrote back to the DG, NIA, on May 17, 2016, stating that the detailed report of NIA’s projects and exercises had been presented to the president and that the president was pleased with their work”, the source said.