By Hugo Odiogor

Fresh facts have emerged of how Nigerian government officials colluded with foreign banks and financial institutions to rip the country off in the pretext of repayment of external debts.

This revelation is coming as Federal Government embarks on another process of taking $29 billion loan to finance growth which it could not initiate or finance when it had a hefty external reserve profile.

Some of the state governments that fell victim of this well organised debt repayment scam have begun to receive the refund for the excess deductions made on their statutory allocations by the Federal Government for the purposes of repayment of the foreign debt by the Obasanjo administration.

Ironically, House of Representatives last week kicked against President Goodluck Jonathan’s request for $29 billion external loan “to finance growth” which sources said is another ploy by Aso Rock to find resources to fund the 2011 general elections through the back door.

Adamawa, Taraba get 90% refund
Vanguard can authoritatively inform that Adamawa and Taraba states have received over 90% of $444 million deducted in excess amount creamed off from their monthly statutory allocation for repayment of the dubious foreign loans.

There is a refund of another $104 million non-existent loan presumed to have been obtained from an Austrian bank by the old Gongola State “to build an International Hotel in Yola”.

It turned out that some government officials cooked the document as the said Austrian bank wrote to say that they “had no business interest in Africa let alone Yola.”

Investigations revealed that as at June 2005, Adamawa State government was credited to owe N254,227, 920.00 while Taraba State was said to be owing N142,409,347.56, but in actual fact some of these figures came from loans from doubtful sources.

Sources at the Debt Management Office in Abuja confirmed that the two states have been paid the excess deductions and Niger State was next in line.