The Missing Okigbo Panel Report

Punch Editorial
Tuesday November 18, 2003

At the beginning of this month, this newspaper made a startling revelation on
the missing report of the Pius Okigbo Panel of Inquiry, set up by the late Gen.
Sani Abacha junta in 1994 to probe how the $12.4 billion oil windfall earned by
the nation during the first Gulf War in 1991 was spent. The newspaper arrived at
the conclusion after a two-month- long search for the report at the relevant
quarters, including the office of the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation (SGF) and the Department of National Archives at the Federal Ministry
of Information and National Orientation, could not provide a clue to the
whereabouts of the report. The current SGF, Chief Ufot Ekaette, happened to be a
member of the Okigbo panel.

A summary of the panel