Sanusi will be Prosecuted If……
The President who was speaking in a media chat in Abuja with editors of some media houses said that that the $20 billion is so huge an amount that it could provide a lot of jobs for Nigerians.
“Nigerians should watch out, nobody is covering up anybody”, the President assured stressing that government must however follow due process since there are established procedures for probing public corporations.
The President said that Sanusi Lamido Sanusi remains governor of Central Bank until the new nominations s are cleared. He said Sanusi had to step aside since he is the chairman of the board of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) to enable government investigate allegations leveled against his person.
The President who said he has powers to suspend the CBN governor noted that Sanusi may be prosecuted only if he is found to be guilty of fraud. He however said the civil service is however slow when it comes to prosecution. “FRC will look into it, if he has a case to answer, it will depend on the nature of the case if not criminal or negligence, he may not be prosecuted, it may be an indictment, prosecution comes where a clear fraud is established”, he said.
Jonathan explained that contrary to Sanusi’s outburst that his hands are clean, the audit reports of the CBN for 2012 where never signed by external auditors and could therefore not be published.
He said he is yet to receive the audit report for the year 2013. The President said he raised his first query on the 2012 audit report in April and that the reply of the CBN governor was sent to the FRC, which he said was not satisfied with the reply prompting him to raise another query in May.
He said exchange of correspondence continued until February before the CBN Governor was suspended.
The president said he almost pulled out of the Kerosene subsidy but that Nigerians resisted it, noting that he was Vice President when a directive to stop subsidy on Kerosene was issued.
Jonathan also spoke on the insurgent by Boko Haram in the North, stressing that though it is difficult tackling terrorism, Nigeria will get over it. He however described as unfortunate that the Governor of Borno, Alhaji Kashim Shettima could come out and say that Boko Haram is winning the war, stressing that the governor may not be able to stay in Government House if soldiers were withdrawn from the state for just one month and return to take over the state.
He however ruled out appointment of sole administrator for the state.
On the power situation, the president said he did not give specific figures about expected energy to be generated but that he said that there will be a significant improvement in power based on successful transfer of ownership of infrastructure to the private sector which he said is the best so far all over the world.
He however attributed the present challenges to sabotage by individuals who did not want him to succeed with his power sector reform. He assured that Nigeria will get to the desired destination.
