President Buhari Faces Acid Test Over Halliburton Bribery Scandal

 

President Buhari’s commitment to rid Nigeria of corruption will be tested by how far and how well he handles the Halliburton bribery scandal which allegedly involved highly placed Nigerians described as sacred cows; Analysts have said.

Earlier, Balarabe Musa, a former governor of the old Kaduna State, and chairperson, Conference of Nigerian Political Party (CNPP), said the President lacked the moral fibre to bring those involved in the Halliburton scandal to book.

A chieftain of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in Edo State told BusinessDay SUNDAY that before the President left for a three-day official visit to the US, the White House made it clear that unless those involved in the American multinational scandal were prosecuted, part of the bribe money, about $140 million, recovered and still in the US, would not be repatriated to Nigeria, hence the President’s directive to security agencies to reopen investigations into the case.

In 2014, the US took control of more than $480 million siphoned away into banks around the world by Sani Abacha, the late Nigerian dictator, and his associates. Switzerland subsequently agreed to return some $380 million seized in Luxembourg in 2006, after a deal in which Nigeria accepted to drop a case against Abacha’s son, Mohammed.