Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari was presiding over the most corrupt government in Nigeria’s history and was protecting looters of the country’s commonwealth under his watch.
He said Nigerians have seen through the deceit of the Buhari administration and would no longer buy what he described as the fake image of integrity it was trying to sell.
The governor said it was worrisome that Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index reported that corruption has become more endemic in Nigeria than it was 16 years ago.
“With the country moving 12 points below its rating, a honourable government would have stopped flaunting anti-corruption fight as its major achievement. Releasing names of people who are still under trial as looters just to cover up its failures is even more laughable,” he stated.
Fayose pointed out that the first list of alleged looters released by the Federal Government was politically motivated and the second one was an afterthought done to cover government’s shame because Nigerians questioned the first list.
In a statement Sunday by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, the governor restated that Nigerians were more interested in their welfare, security of their lives and physical development of the country.
He argued that Nigerians prefer their welfare to concocted lists of corrupt opposition figures, who are only corrupt in the estimation of the Buhari-led government because they do not belong to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
“The Peoples 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 offloaded the corrupt elements into the APC and they were not only accepted gladly but were given prominent appointments by the President,” he said.
Fayose further likened President Buhari to a father who is protecting his children that are armed robbers but calling on security agents to arrest his neighbours’ children for stealing meat from their mother’s pot.
“For any lists of looters to be credible, the President, who is protecting looters under his government should be number one looter, while those 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 their seized property, ministerial appointments and even disappearance of prosecution witnesses in EFCC cases.
He also listed the reinstatement and promotion of Abdullahi Maina, who was declared wanted for corruption by the International Police Organisation, (INTERPOL) and NNPC’s $25 billion contracts scam, among others, as cases of a government of plunderers under President Buhari.