Pulse List 2018: Top 5 corruption stories in Nigeria

In 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari ran on a campaign to rid the nation of corruption, but one seems to pop up as frequently as flies at dumpsites.

Three years into the president's tenure, corruption cases are still one dime a dozen and we've taken the pains to list the most interesting ones in no particular order.

1. The Gandollar wave

Kano State governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, has been the subject of one of the most blatant acts of corruption in Nigeria after videos emerged of him (or a man of his likeness *wink *wink) receiving bribes from a contractor.

Kano State governor, Umar Ganduje ece-auto-gen

Six different video clips have gone viral on social media showing the governor accepting bundles of dollar notes from a yet-to-be-identified contractor as he stands accused of regularly receiving bribes from contractors handling projects in the state.

The governor has maintained his innocence, claiming that the videos have been doctored by his political opponents to tarnish his reputation.

When he was invited for questioning by the state's House of Assembly panel investigating bribery allegations against him, he sent the state's Commissioner for Information, Mohammed Garba, to deny the allegations and question the authenticity of the videos.

While a court case has tried to stop the legislature from investigating the governor, Ganduje has also sued the publisher of Daily Nigerian, Ja'afar Ja'afar, the man who coordinated the sting operation.

When asked for his opinion on the governor's travails, President Buhari noted that he's a responsible leader because he has completed projects abandoned by the previous government. Apparently someone needs to hand the president a study guide on how 2+2 is not equal to pounded yam.

2. Ayodele Fayose

Former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, is not a man for the little occasions; go big or go home. That's why he's The Rock.

This is why when he finally ran to the end of his second term as governor, he didn't slink away into the shadows to catch a breath, he jumped into the arms of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Ayodele Fayose at EFCC headquarters in Abuja ece-auto-gen

The same day his immunity ended as governor, Fayose gave himself up to the anti-graft agency on October 16, facing allegations of receiving N1.3 billion from the office of former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, through then-Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, in the run up to the Ekiti State governorship election in 2014.

He made a show of turning himself in, wearing a shirt with "EFCC, I'm here" inscribed on it, and also carrying two packed bags as he earlier said he was prepared to be detained. He was later hit with an 11-count charge of conspiracy and money laundering.

The Rock will no doubt be taking a lot of trips to courtrooms for the next few months.

3. Former governors Dariye and Nyame jailed

Former Taraba state governor, Jolly Nyame ece-auto-gen

Justice Adebukola Banjoko of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja sentenced a former Taraba State governor, Jolly Nyame, to 14 years behind bars without an option of fine on May 30, 2018.

Nyame was jailed two years for receiving gratification, five years for obtaining public funds without due consideration, seven years for criminal breach of trust, and 14 years for gratification. The jail terms were to run concurrently.

Two weeks later, the same judge sentenced former Plateau State governor, Senator Joshua Dariye, to 14 years imprisonment after he was found guilty of criminal breach of trust and diverting N1.162 billion state ecological funds while he was governor between 1999 and 2007.

Tsohon gwamna ya samu hukuncin dauri na shekara 14 ece-auto-gen

Both rulings were hailed as watershed moments in the nation's fight against corruption, especially ones committed by public officials.

However, Nyame's 14 year term was later cut down to 12 years by an Abuja division of the Court of Appeal. He was also ordered to pay a fine of N495 million. On the same day, the court also reduced Dariye's sentence to 10 years.

4. NEMA scandal

In May 2018, a House of Representatives committee on Emergency and Disaster Preparedness threatened to issue an arrest warrant against the Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mustapha Maihaja, after he failed to appear for questioning over the allegations of violation of public trust.

Mustapha-Maihaja, Director General of NEMA. ece-auto-gen

In November, the lower chamber of the National Assembly indicted Maihaja and NEMA for mismanaging N5.8 billion earmarked for the North East Intervention Fund.

The panel also determined the process of authorisation for the release of the fund for emergency food intervention in the North East from the Consolidated Revenue Fund Account to NEMA to have contravened Section 80(4) of the 1999 Constitution as amended. Vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, had authorised the fund while serving as Acting President in President Buhari's absence.

The investigation uncovered the release of the N5.8 billion as well as N3.1 billion emergency food intervention in the northeast in 2017, the 6,779 metric tonnes of rice donated by the Chinese government to IDPs in the northeast and the payment of about N800 million demurrage on the donated rice that reportedly never made it to the affected IDPs. The investigation disclosed that the FG lost the sum of N33 billion due to Maihaja's mismanagement.

The legislative chamber called for Maihaja's dismissal and prosecution for fraud, corruption and embezzlement of N33 billion Emergency Intervention Fund, as well as all the government officials involved in the approval, processing, release and diversion of the fund.

Maihaja has denied all the allegations, and so has the vice president who noted in a public response that Section 43 of the Public Procurement Act makes provision for emergency procurement. He also said that the grains donated by China were delivered to the target states, a claim reiterated by Maihaja.

5. NLNG scandal

To solve a biting fuel scarcity problem between late last year and early this year, the Federal Government was caught pants down illegally paying subsidy without proper authorisation.

The state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was discovered in October to have illegally diverted N378 billion sourced from the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) dividend funds to secretly fund subsidy payment on petroleum products. The fund in question was secretly diverted into payments on petrol supply and distribution when it should have been shared between the federal, state and local governments.

NNPC GMD, Maikanti Baru ece-auto-gen

The amount in question was spent on fuel subsidy without the required consultation with states or the mandatory appropriation by the National Assembly. The legislature described the payments as illegal and demanded a probe of the major actors in the scandal.

Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru, and the corporation have denied any wrongdoing in the processing of the fund which they claim was jointly sourced from an unnamed international agency and jointly managed with the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, the Department of Petroleum Resources and the Petroleum Equalization Fund.