A former Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, governor who is now the Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi, has reacted to the recent audit report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, PwC, on the alleged missing $20 billion oil money he had raised, saying the report confirmed in the first instance that at least, $18.5 billion was indeed missing.

The monarch faulted the minister of petroleum resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, for claiming that the report had exonerated the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, earlier accused of diverting the money.

In an article he published in the Financial Times of London, he stated that the argument that the outstanding amount was used by the NNPC for apparently unlawful purposes such as kerosene subsidy, does not dismiss the notion that the NNPC illegally withheld billions of oil dollars from the government.

“Contrary to the claims of petroleum minister Diezani Alison-Madueke, the audit report does not exonerate the NNPC. It establishes that the gap between the company’s oil revenues between January 2012 and July 2013 and cash remitted to the government for the same period was $18.5bn,” Sanusi said.

The ex-central banker said of the $18.5bn in revenues that the state oil company did not send to the government according to PwC, “about $12.5bn appears by my calculations to have been diverted”, stressing that “this relates only to a random 19-month period, not the five-year term of Mr. Jonathan, the outgoing president.”

Writing about his suspension by the president which came after he raised an alarm about the missing money, Sanusi wrote that he had made it clear that “you can suspend a man, but you cannot suspend the truth”.

He held that the publication of the PwC audit report into the missing billions has brought the nation a step closer to the truth, pointing out that the report has suggested lines for further investigation into the matter.

While urging the Buhari government to follow the leads and ensure anyone found culpable is punished, the Kano Emir noted that, “Nigerians did not vote for an amnesty for anyone. The lines of investigation suggested by this audit need to be pursued. Any officials found responsible for involvement in this apparent breach of trust must be charged.”