Nigeria has officially put CNN & the Qatari General Media on notice saying that they have until the end of the week to provide information about the project they claim has linked them to corruption and the plot to assassinate national leader Muhammadu Buhari.
But in a letter from the government to the CNN, DSS director general said there were no grounds to establish that CNN and Qatar were linked to an alleged plot to assassinate Buhari.
Source says they are investigating claims about the Babadango toll gate project in Lagos
The government claims CNN’s report on the Babadango toll gate project in Lagos did not mention the controversy surrounding the project.
“CNN is further reminded that in their report with a premise that, pending the outcome of its investigation into the charges as well as the other allegations/accusations, the Government of Nigeria might take any action which is deemed necessary to ensure full and complete compliance,” the letter says.
As CNN reported in March, the Babadango toll gate, run by Justice Africa, an offshore Nigerian entity based in the Cayman Islands, holds on the balance sheet of a Company – Justice Africa Procurement Ltd, incorporated in the British Virgin Islands and registered to a company in Lebanon.
Justice Africa is in charge of the Babadango toll road in Lagos.
And investigators told CNN how, under the orders of a member of the Babadango board, its managing director paid tens of millions of dollars to a Lebanese company to pay for its car park, a hospital, a shopping mall and a new administrative building, ostensibly for the use of the toll road.
The ABC spoke to a former member of the Babadango board about what the toll company’s finance director described as “corrupt” payment of these payments.
In addition, CNN examined documents that showed Justice Africa had also transferred $117,000 to a special account held by another member of the government. That man’s wife is a member of President Buhari’s cabinet and Justice Africa has since stopped all payments to this man.
ABC noted several other payments on the Babadango balance sheet that did not include any increase in the cost of road construction, as Justice Africa’s own annual report indicated.
This is just one of the issues investigators are probing at Justice Africa. More details about the Babadango toll gate will be explained on Friday, when CNN reveals further details.
The letter from the DSS is signed by the deputy director of investigation office, Hemani Abubakar.