Goodluck's $3bn bribe rejected by Conference of Islamic Organisations and Muslim Congress

FORMER president Dr Goodluck Jonathan offered two Islamic organisations $3m under a religious fund programme in the run-up to this year's elections in a bid to solicit their support but they both rejected it claiming it was a bribe.

 

According to Alhaji Abdullahi Shuaib, the coordinator of the Conference of Islamic Organisations, said his organisation and The Muslim Congress (TMC) said they rejected the money because bribery is not in their culture. Speaking at the 22nd National Islamic Training Programme held at Odosengolu near Ijebu-Ode in Ogun State, he added that they chose to remain true to their principles even if it meant going hungry.

 

Alhaji Shuaib said: “It is not a secret, they came, offering us over $3m but we said no and today we have been vindicated.  It is not even part of our own culture to take bribe as we prefer to go hungry than to collect a bribe from somebody and then eat what is unlawful.

 

"We knew very well that it was bait and it was a poison and you cannot eat and dine with the devil and think the devil will not come after you. We said clearly no as it is completely un-Islamic but all those organisations that actually took and swallowed the bait, today, they all know what it means for them to have allowed the devil and themselves to eat and dine with the devil."

 

Also, the executive director and chief executive of the Zakat and Sadaqat Foundation, an arm of TMC, Alhaji Shuaib added that it was wrong for religious bodies of any faith to accept bribes. Apparently, Nigeria’s former national security adviser, Col Sambo Dasuki, who is currently being prosecuted for mismanagement of about $2.1bn security funds allegedly gave over N4bn  of the money to the ex-governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa, to distribute to Islamic organisations.

 

Apart from Messrs Dasuki and Bafarawa, others being prosecuted in the scandal include ex-Peoples Democratic Party chairman, Haliru Mohammed and Raymond Dokpesi, the owner of Daar Communications. Alhaji Shuaib condemned all those who collected the funds from Col Dasuki.

Alhaji Shuaib added: “It is morally wrong and it is unethical for any organisation, either Muslim or Christian or traditionalist to have indulged in that reckless looting of the treasury and the common wealth. There is no way they can exonerate themselves because they symbolise the House of God and they have desecrated it and it is a sacrilege and it is wrong.

 

“Ethically it is wrong, morally it is wrong, socially, it is wrong, economically it is wrong and legally it is wrong. I think, we should allow the long arm of the law to catch up with them and let the law take it cause over them."