LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Fifty-five
people, including former governors, Cabinet ministers and government
workers, stole $9 billion dollars from Nigeria's treasury, the
information minister said Monday.
Lai
Mohammed made the allegations as he kicked off a "national
sensitization campaign," appealing to Nigerians to join the fight
against corruption that is crippling what should be a rich nation with
Africa's biggest economy, population and oil production.
The
looted 1.35 trillion Nigerian naira could have built 36 hospitals or
educated 4,000 children through university, Mohammed said. He said it
was stolen between 2006 and 2013, when the naira stood at about 150 to
the dollar, half today's value. Mohammed did not identify the 55 accused
but said bankers and businessmen are among them.
The
funds include $2.1 billion meant to buy weapons to fight Boko Haram's
6-year-old Islamic uprising that has killed some 20,000 people but
instead was diverted to the election campaign of former President
Goodluck Jonathan and his party, Mohammed said. Jonathan lost March 2014
elections to former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari, who promised to
halt corruption and the insurgency.
Buhari
said Monday that a multinational force has driven Boko Haram into
"fall-back positions" and uprooted them from all territory they held.
Mohammed
denied that the war against corruption was a vendetta against the
opposition. He said, "If we don't kill corruption, corruption will kill
Nigeria."
Nigeria's judiciary
is critical to the fight, he said. Three different courts have granted
bail to Jonathan's former national security adviser, Sambo Dasuki, who
is accused of being instrumental in the theft of the $2.1 billion and
has said he diverted the money on Jonathan's orders. Buhari has said he
will not allow Dasuki out of detention.