Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has faulted the list of alleged looters released by the Federal Government on Sunday.
Fayose described the list as a “concocted and afterthought to cover the shame of the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration.”
The governor also accused President Muhammadu Buhari of presiding over “the most corrupt government in the history of Nigeria and protecting looters of the country’s commonwealth.”
He likened Buhari to a father who is protecting his children that are armed robbers but calling on security agents to arrest children of his neighbour for stealing meats from their mother’s pot,
Fayose in a statement on Monday by his Special Assistant on Public Communication and New Media, Lere Olayinka, insisted that the administration Buhari presides over lacks the moral justification to call some people “looters” alleging that his (Buhari’s) presidential nomination form was procured with looted cash.
He reiterated that Nigerians were more interested in their welfare, security of their lives and physical development of the country than tales of concocted lists of corrupt Nigerians, who are only corrupt in the estimation of the government because they do not belong to the APC.
Fayose said: “With the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, saying that corruption has become more endemic in Nigeria than it was in the last 16 years.
“With the country moving 12 places below its rating, a honourable government would have stopped using fight against corruption as its major achievement and releasing names of people that are still under trial as looters just to cover up its failure.
“The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) never pretended to Nigerians that it had corrupt people in its fold and the party never protected them. Today, the party has gone ahead to offload the corrupt elements into the APC and they were not only accepted gladly into the party, they were given prominent appointments by the President.”
“For any lists of alleged looters to be credible, the President, who is protecting looters should be number one while those looters in his government should follow.
“His nomination form was bought with proceeds of corruption and those who bought the form and financed his election were paid back with the return of all their seized properties, ministerial appointments and even disappearance of prosecution witnesses in EFCC cases.
“A government that reinstated and promoted Abdullahi Maina, who was declared wanted for corrupt practices by the International Police Organisation, (INTERPOL) and dismissed in 2013 for alleged N2.1 billion pension fraud and used APC broom to sweep the $25 billion contracts scam in the NNPC under the carpet is nothing but a government of plunderers and that is the clear definition of Buhari’s government.
“It was in this same government that the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole suspended the National Health Insurance Scheme Executive Secretary, Professor Usman Yusuf for alleged corruption and the President recalled him even without the knowledge of the Minister.
“Up till today, nothing has happened to the probe panel on the allegedN500 million bribery said to have been paid to the President’s Chief of Staff (COS), Abba Kyari by officials of MTN to influence government to discontinue its heavy stance on the $5 billion fine imposed on the company.
“Therefore, no matter how hard they try now, they can no longer hoodwink Nigerians with their deceit of fight against corruption. Even APC Senator, Shehu Sani once said that the President uses insecticide to fight corruption involving his perceived political opponents, but use deodorant when it comes it affects his own men.”
