Fayose urges Buhari to first jail corrupt people in his government

Suspends Commissioner, Perm Sec For Absenteeism
Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose yesterday asked President Muhammadu Buhari to fight corruption by first ridding his government of corrupt elements.

He said someone needed to tell the president that Nigerians no longer believe in his
anti-corruption fight, as his government parades some of the most corrupt Nigerians.

Buhari had said in Abuja yesterday during the presentation of a book: Making Steady Sustainable Progress that any public official caught in corruption would be jailed.

But reacting through a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Fayose asked: “How many of those indicted of corruption in President Buhari’s government has he jailed?

“Is it not the height of hypocrisy for a president using the All Progressives Concress (APC) broom to sweep corruption involving his men under the carpet to be talking about jailing anyone caught stealing public funds?”

The governor, who insisted that President Buhari was only hiding under anti-corruption fight to harass his perceived political foes, added: “We have a president who is the life patron of corruption in Nigeria.

“His government is not only corrupt, the government itself is corruption! Sadly, our president is still carrying on with the mindset that Nigerians are still listening to his lyrics of fighting corruption.

“Today is the 17th day since President Buhari sacked the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal and the Director General, National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ayodele Oke, but has the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested any of them?

“Apart from sacking Oke, has President Buhari told Nigerians any other thing about the $43 million discovered in Ikoyi, Lagos apartment? Who owns the apartment? What has happened to those involved in the fraudulent reinstatement of the former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdullahi Maina, for allegedly committing N2.1 billion pensions fraud, while in office?

Among others questions, Fayose wanted to know why has the EFCC not arrested Maina till date.

When the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu’s alleged that the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC); Maikanti Baru, awarded $25 billion contracts without following due process, were Buhari’s men not the ones defending Baru? He queried.

Meanwhile, the Ekiti helmsman has suspended the Commissioner for Education, Jide Egunjobi and the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Adekunbi
Obaise for alleged abandonment of duty without permission.

He took their suspension to the state broadcasting services where it was
aired intermittently.

It was reliably gathered that the governor had visited the ministry located within the State Secretariat along the Saliu Adeoti House of Assembly Way but could not find the officials in their offices.

Fayose was also said to have immediately contacted the Deputy Governor, Prof. Kola Olusola, who supervises the ministry and who was said to have condemned the commissioner’s absence from his duty post.