Governor reacts to FG’s plan to sell assets recovered from looters

President Buhari, while speaking to members of Daura Emirate coalition on Monday, February 19, 2018, said that the assets will be sold and the proceeds paid into the government’s coffers.

In his reaction, Fayose asked the government to publish the properties and the names of the alleged owners before selling them.

The Governor also said that there should be a website listing all the properties recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the names of the new owners.

He said “Nigerians want to know how many properties were recovered and who bought the properties. Who authorised the sale? Nigerians want details, not propaganda, because most of these properties have been sold and resold.

“The Federal Government should create a website where all the properties recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and to whom they were sold will be listed so that by one click, Nigerians will have information.”

Fayose also alleged that many people have been blackmailed and coerced to give up their properties.

He also called on the Buhari-led administration to stop telling Nigerians stories without background or proof.

The Governor said “How can Nigerians continue to trust the position of the same EFCC that said in April 2016 that the allegation of corruption against the Code of Conduct Tribunal Chairman, Danladi Umar, was mere suspicion and would be difficult to prove in court, but now charged the same CCT chairman to court on the allegation it described as mere suspicion?

“On November 23, 2017, Senator Emmanuel Paulker, the chairman of the Senate committee investigating the botched reinstatement and promotion of the former chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pensions, under the leadership of Ibrahim Maina told Nigerians on the floor of the Senate that almost all the exotic properties recovered from alleged looters of Pension Funds had already been re-looted by the officials of the EFCC.

“Last year November also, the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), while testifying before the National Assembly alleged that one of the properties recovered from the alleged looters of Pension Funds was already sold to a Lagos lawyer.

“How are we now sure that the same people who re-looted the recovered pension loot have not also looted the recovered properties the President said would be sold?”

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“Many people were blackmailed and coerced to surrender their properties. A typical case is the one on Malabu Oil where people have been scandalised, harassed and their names destroyed via media trial and the Attorney General of the Federation now comes out to say that there is not enough evidence to try them. What will now happen to the lies told against those people?

“The Federal Government should therefore publish and state clearly what has happened in the EFCC between 2006 and now. Nigerians need to know the recovered properties sold by Ibrahim Magu’s predecessor, Ibrahim Lamorde, and other previous EFCC chairmen. Those who bought them should be made public too,” he added.

Fayose not convinced about Buhari’s war on corruption

Governor Ayo Fayose has consistently described President Buhari’s war on corruption as a joke.

He also described Mr. President as the life patron of corruption in Nigeria.

According to him,the peopleconnected to Buhari’s administration have robbed the country blind.

Recently, former President Olusegun Obasanjo also said that the president's war against corruption has been polluted by people in his inner circle, who have been smeared in corruption allegations,