By Ishaya Ibrahim
The PDP Presidential Campaign Organization (PPCO) on Wednesday said the confession by the sacked Executive Director of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Dr. Abdullahi Baffa Bichi, that he was fired for refusing to give N200 million as kick-back to the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, “has further exposed the seething corruption in the Buhari presidency.”
PPCO said the revelation did not come to many Nigerians as a surprise
and had further vindicated PDP’s position that the presidency
was inherently corrupt and thrives on concealment, deception,
beguilement, propaganda and lies.
Baffa’s appointment at TETFUND was terminated by the Federal government on Monday for reason not yet stated. Subsequently, the government announced the reinstatement of Professor Suleiman Bogoro to take over from Baffa.
Bogoro was sacked by the same administration in 2016 for alleged high handedness.
But on Wednesday, Dr. Baffa alleged that he was sacked from office for refusing to give out kickback to the minister of education.
In an interview with BBC Hausa service, he said the minister of education had sent a contractor to him demanding the sharing of N200 billion meant to be disbursed to tertiary institutions in the country.
According to him, “The minister has demanded kickbacks from me. He sent a contractor for that purpose and even had the strength to dictate that amount of money. By his estimation, he said even if I deducted 10% from each institution, I would have collected at least N20 billion.
“I want to assure you that I’ve never collected a single naira from any institution as he thought and if he or anybody has evidence to prove against me, I will be willing to accept the death penalty,” Baffa insisted.
Baffa said the minister had accused him of inaccessibility, insubordination and talking to the press without his authorisation.
Denying the minister’s allegations, Dr. Baffa claimed to have spent more time at the ministry of education as technical assistant to the minister than he has at TETFUND, wondering why the supervising minister was against him.
Reacting on Wednesday, PPCO said it had always alerted Nigerians that “President Muhammadu Buhari presides over a sanctuary of treasury looters who, as ministers, presidential advisers, heads of special presidential committees, APC leaders and members of President Buhari’s Campaign Council fritter our national resources with reckless abandon under Mr. President’s official cover.”
The statement by the party’s national publicity secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, invited “Nigerians to note that the Buhari Presidency has not given any reasons for Bichi’s removal. It has not also offered any form of
explanation to the huge allegation bordering on corruption against a
cabinet minister; a development, which betrays a collusion at very high
level.”
“This is especially given the series of corruption entanglement around
the Presidency, including the allegations that officials of the Buhari
Presidency took N500 million as bribe to reduce the fine imposed on a
telecommunication company from N1.03 trillion to N330 billion.
“Nigerians have not forgotten the case of the former aide of the First
Lady, Aisha Buhari, Mr. Baba Inna, who was arrested in September last
year for allegedly receiving N2.5 billion from politicians, businessmen
and women on behalf of the First Lady.
“This is in addition to the case of Mrs. Amina Mohammed, who while being
paraded by the Department of State Services (DSS), last year stated in
public that persons close to President Buhari were involved in serial
looting under the official cover of the Buhari Presidency.
“Moreover, we hope this is not one of the conduits through which funds
siphoned to finance the alleged involvement of some individuals said to
be close to the Buhari Presidency in the N1.032 trillion alleged corrupt
acquisitions in 9Mobile and Keystone Bank PLC.
“The PPCO therefore calls on President Buhari to end his sanctimonious
posturing as Nigerians are already aware that he leads a parade of
corrupt and inept leadership that has taken the fortunes of our nation
to the abyss.”
