General Yakubu Gowon (rtd) says accusation of looting half of CBN is 'rubbish'

Following the accusation that he looted half of the CBN funds by a member of the UK Parliament, former Nigerian Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd), has refuted the claim.

Tom Tugendhat, a member of the UK parliament, accused Gowon of looting the country while he was head of state. Tugendhat even claimed that the retired army general had stolen as much as half of the funds in the Central Bank of Nigeria and taken the bounty to the UK.

This accusation raised the hackles of many Nigerians and some of them openly defended the former head of state. We reported that Akinwumi Adesina was one of the defenders.

However, Yakubu Gowon himself has now come forward to clear his name.

“I don’t know where he got that rubbish from, I served Nigeria diligently and my records are there for all to see.

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“What the MP said was just mere ridicule and I don’t know as to where he cooked up such statement. I served Nigeria as much as I could and my achievements during those years are available to everyone.

“I don’t want to talk over the matter since those who know me very well say that the MP’s statement is nothing but a mere fallacy,” he said in an interview with BBC.

Also, Tom Tugendhat had not provided any proof to back up his bold accusation. It is also critical as he made the statement during the UK parliament’s debate about #EndSARS and possible sanctions against the Nigerian ‘regime’.

Gowon was Nigeria’s military head of state from 1966 to 1975. The country was in the middle of its oil boom during this period.

However, after General Yakubu Gowon was ousted in 1975, he went to the UK to study political science and international relations as an undergraduate at Warwick University.

The argument for Gowon is that he was attending an OAU summit in Kampala, when a group of officers led by Colonel Joe Nanven Garba announced his overthrow so he ordinarily couldn’t have carted that much away before he handed over.