The newly appointed Nigeria’s defence minister, Bashir Magashi, will have to spend some time to clear his name as allegation of his misdeeds during his tenure as the commander, Brigade of Guards, under the late military dictator Sani Abacha has come to haunt him.
Magashi was a member of the inner caucus who had access to the public purse and inconsistent oil bloc allocation to cronies while the despotic leader reigned, Premium Times reported on Wednesday. He was later appointed commandant, Nigerian Defence Academy.
After the widely celebrated demise of the dictator in 1999, the Olusegun Obasanjo administration hired a Swiss lawyer, Enrico Monfrini, to help recover the nation’s stolen funds during the Abacha regime which later discovered a nominee account held for Magashi at the Jessey, UK branch of Bank PNP Paribus had $550,000.
The Presidency, however, directed Abdullahi Mukhtar, the then National Security Adviser, to ensure the stashed funds are returned to the nation’s treasury.
Mukhtar, in a memo number NSA/A/225/I/C, revealed that Magashi admitted wrongdoing, saying the money was a proceed of illegal crude oil allocation by the late military head of state made to members of the Provisional Ruling Council (PRC) under his government. At the time, Magashi was not a registered oil trader and being a public servant, it was illegal for him to directly engage in private businesses.
“The account held for Mr. Magashi has a total deposit of $550,000 and it remained intact until it was frozen in 2001,” Mukhtar said in the memo.
Mukhtar, however, added in the memo, “General Magashi pleaded for a concession and Mr. President left for him $150,000 from the said sum and to remit $400,000 to FGN which he has complied with as evidenced at Annex A, hereby attached.”
Magashi was allegedly granted that concession, and no charges pressed against him.
