The Vice Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 election, and former Governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi, has dismissed the allegation that he moved about $500m out of Nigeria to a secret haven outside Nigeria. Pandora documents had indicted the former vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party of siphoning public funds while in office as Governor of Anambra State.
Obi said he was ready to sponsor four journalists to inquire into and uncover the details of his link to any such transactions and the alleged amount claimed by the document which was reported last week.
Obi who was a guest on the Arise TV breakfast show the huge amount being mentioned was a function of the clime we are in. He pointed out that the quest for easy money was responsible for the careless mention of such a figure, He wondered what he would be doing today if he ever came across half of a billion dollars or owned the same.
He said: “I don’t think I would even be here if I had that kind of money. You know when people bandy about the size of money here, it’s because we’re not a productive country. People don’t work for their money, so we find it difficult to understand the value of money.
“Globally today, the world population is 7.8 billion, out of which only about 37.5 million are worth $1 million. Only three million are worth $10 million and only 300,000 are worth $25 million. So, when people call these figures, it’s alarming. It’s because of the fact that we live in a country where people make money they don’t need.
“If you go anywhere near these companies being mentioned, everything globally and find more than about three per cent of the value you mentioned now – I’m talking about $15 million out of which 70 per cent is supporting a loan on investments in this country, then confiscate everything I have in my life.
“Do you know what half of a billion dollars is? That’s almost N300 billion.
“My entire earnings while I was governor of Anambra State, was under N500 billion, out of which I saved 15 per cent – N75 billion. I don’t know how people call figures here and that is why people make money they don’t need.
“What do you need that kind of money for? Why do you need to do that?” he wondered.
“One of the challenges that I’m going to throw today, is to ask you and some other persons to select one, two, three, four persons that I would foot their bills to follow the trail of this company to where it is today.
“See the formation, who gave the advice, and how we came to where we are, you won’t even find five per cent of that the figure you called anywhere.
“If I had $500 million, you would have seen me building universities everywhere. Do you know how many institutions I support? I will be building universities all over the place.”
The Pandora documents alleged that some Nigerians have secretly opened some offshore accounts and businesses to run while they escape public scrutiny of the same.