Contrary to the health reason cited as basis for his resignation as National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, actually quit his job to avoid prosecution for corrupt practices. A source told New Telegraph yesterday that the presidency had perfected plans to make the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) reopen Mu’azu’s file for prosecution before he suddenly travelled abroad. Mu’azu has a pending case with the EFCC bordering on the alleged mismanagement of public funds to the tune of N19.8 billion when he was governor of Bauchi State between 1999 and 2007.
It was learnt that President Goodluck Jonathan bowed to pressure from some of his aides to allow EFCC prosecute Mu’azu following his resistance to resign after he led the party to its first humiliating defeat in 16 years. Jonathan was said to have advised Mu’azu to toe the path of honour and quit as national chairman after the PDP lost its ruling status in the general elections to the All Progressives Congress (APC). But the former governor was said to have declined the president’s request. Mu’azu was accused by the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation of sabotaging Jonathan’s re-election by working for the opposition.
It was learnt that when Mu’azu got the hint that the hawks in the presidency were bent on humiliating him with the corruption case and in the face of growing calls by governors and PDP stakeholders for the dissolution of the National Working Committee (NWC), he travelled to Singapore, on the excuse that he was going for medical treatment. On Wednesday May 20, Mu’azu resigned while abroad. “Mu’azu has no health challenge. He resigned to wade off the onslaught the presidency was bent on launching against him. Mu’azu has business interests in Singapore. As I’m speaking with you, he shuttles between Singapore and Malaysia where he manages his business interests. “The presidency felt the former PDP national chairman sabotaged the re-election bid of President Jonathan. So, they are after him.
The plan was to re-open his file with the EFCC which had been put at abeyance because of his cosy relationship with President Jonathan. So, the man is in Singapore to save his name,” an associate of the former governor told New Telegraph. The source stated that Mu’azu would return in June after the exit of Jonathan on Friday. The petition against Mu’azu had prompted the anti-graft agency to invite the former governor for investigation and he was billed to appear before EFCC operatives in Abuja in July 2008. Rather than honour the invitation, Mu’azu travelled to the United Kingdom on the pretence that he was attending the graduation of his daughter. After the event, Mu’azu relocated to Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. He was in Dubai on self-exile for two years.
As soon as Jonathan became president in 2010 after the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Mu’azu returned to Nigeria in September 2010. On his return, EFCC in October 2010 maintained that the former governor still has a case to answer. “We wish to state emphatically that ex-Governor Adamu Mu’azu is still being investigated and as such could not have been cleared of graft allegations against him.
“The former governor who until recently has been out of the country is still expected to honour an invitation to be interviewed by a team of operatives investigating the case against him,” EFCC’s spokesperson at the time, Femi Babafemi, had said. But the anti-graft agency never presses any case against the former governor despite his failure to honour the invitation.
Jonathan and Mu’azu enjoyed bosom relationship when the president was deputy governor of Bayelsa State. New Telegraph learnt that in the heat of the political crisis in Bayelsa State when the Olusegun Obasanjo administration moved against the then Governor Diepriye Alamieyeseigha, Mu’azu accommodated Jonathan at the Yankari Games Resort in Bauchi and provided a shield for him. Jonathan left Bauchi shortly after the Bayelsa State House of Assembly impeached Alamieyeseigha to become the governor of the oil-rich state. The relationship between the president and Mu’azu helped the former governor to be appointed as PDP national chairman in January 2014 following the ouster of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.
As soon as Mu’azu became the PDP national chairman, the corruption petition against him became an issue. But the PDP described the purported investigation of Mu’azu as part of a plot to distract its national chairman from his “determination and commitment to rebuild and reposition the PDP as the pre-eminent party in Nigeria.” PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, who on January 26, 2014 defended Mu’azu, de-scribed the fraud allegation against him as political persecution. He added that based on the judgement of the Chief Judge of Bauchi State, Justice Mohammed Ibrahim Zango, who quashed the White Paper that indicted Mu’azu by the administration of his successor, Alhaji Isa Yuguda, the former PDP chair had been cleared of all allegations as contained in the White Paper.
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