Ex-SPIP Chairman Accuses Buhari Administration of Returning Seized Loot to Corrupt Officials.

According to Okoi Obono-Obla, a former chairman of the Special Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property, the loot seized by his panel under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari was given back to the looters.

Speaking on the Mic On Podcast, Obono-Obla—a presidential assistant appointed by Buhari—made the accusation. He claimed that the Buhari administration's inability to combat corruption undermined the foundation of the public's confidence in him.

Buhari established the independent investigating panel SPIP in order to retrieve national assets and pilfered goods.

Obono-Obla claimed that members of the same administration, such as former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami, whom he called a "authoritarian," thwarted his attempts to prosecute several looters in the nation.

“Some of the things I recovered were returned to the looters. For instance, there was this case of someone from whom I recovered over 80 brand new X-class Mercedes Benz cars (armoured plated) from in Jabi, Abuja.

I wrote to the DG, Customs to ask if the person paid customs duties of the vehicles, he said ‘No’, they didn’t pay. I wrote to the Federal Inland Revenue Services to know if the person paid tax on the vehicles; he also said ‘No’ and that they don’t have the records. We went to court to get an order of interim forfeiture, and it was granted pending the hearing of the case. So, I sent a memo to Malami to brief him on what we were doing, only for him to tell me that he never mandated me to do things I investigated,” he said.

Continuing, he stated; “Another one is the case of a senator who was then in his sitting status and later became the President of the Senate. I found his story in the Panama Papers, which stated that he had property in offshore islands; I didn’t have the power to investigate him because it was overseas, so I went to the DG, NIA, and sought his help to work together. They conducted an investigation and sent the report to me. The report confirmed that this senator has over £200 million worth of property in the offshore islands; I sent a copy to the president and one to the Attorney General. Till today, nothing happened,” he added

In response to inquiries about whether the Buhari administration was unable to combat corruption, Obono-Obla stated:

“Yes, I would say so. We didn’t do well. When Magu (former EFCC chairman) and I left, we didn’t hear anything again about fighting corruption. Both of us had a similar fate; we were stepping on toes and too stubborn. In fact, Malami’s close associate once told me, ‘you —Obla and Magu— are very stubborn,’” he stressed.

In 2019, Obono-Obla received a letter announcing his immediate removal from office due to an investigation by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, an anti-graft agency. The investigation revealed that Obono-Obla had fabricated his WAEC results in order to gain admission to the University of Jos, where he pursued a legal education in the 1980s. On the basis of the falsified high school transcripts, he was additionally charged with enrolling in the Nigerian Law School.