'Release names of looters and sum returned' - Gov. challenges Buhari

dimeji akinloye

November 26, 2015 8:53 PM

Fayose said Buhari should stop making empty noise about fighting corruption, and focus on reviving Nigeria's collapsed economy instead.

Ayo Fayose

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has described President Muhammadu Buhari's statement that officials who served in the Goodluck Jonathan administration have started returning stolen funds as a lie.

He challenged the President to disclose the names of those who returned the looted funds as well as the figure they returned.

The Governor stated this in a statement released in Ado-Ekiti today, Nov. 26, by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka.

”President should rather stay at home to govern the country instead of junketing around the globe and acting like a saint before the international community.

“Since the purported looted funds belong to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it ought to have been paid into the Federation Account and shared by the Federal, State and Local Government,” Fayose said.

He said Buhari should stop making empty noise about fighting corruption, and focus on reviving Nigeria's collapsed economy instead.

The Governor also countered the President's statement during his recent visit to Iran that it was easier for him as a military Head of State in 1984 to arrest corrupt individuals and put them in protective custody.

READ: ‘We’ll soon charge looters to court,’ Buhari says

Fayose said the statement was "a pointer to the fact that he has not changed from the dictator that he was then.

“The truth is that Buhari did not fight corruption in 1984. Rather, he persecuted great Nigerians, especially the likes Chief Adekunle Ajasin, Chief Ambrose Ali, Chief Bisi Onabanjo, Alhaji Lateef Jakande and Chief Bola Ige, who served the people meritoriously.

“Is Buhari justifying the imprisonment of Dr Alex Ekwueme, who was only the Vice President or All Progressives Congress (APC) leader like Chief Bisi Akande, who only served as a Deputy Governor?”

Fayose further stated that Buhari stop acting like a saint and get to work.

He said, “Nigerians are desirous of concrete developments, not rhetoric about fight against corruption that is only being used to persecute perceived political enemies of the President both in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and within the APC.

“As at today, Nigerians are faced with serious hardship occasioned by prolonged fuel scarcity that the Federal Government does not have any solution to. Multi-national companies are laying-off thousands of workers while contractors working for the Federal Government have left their sites. Yet, what we get to hear from the President is noise in foreign lands about non-existing fight against corruption.

“Honestly, this President should get to work and stop lying to Nigerians and the international community.”

Buhari made the comments in question while addressing the Nigerian community in Iranon November 24, 2015, where he attended a three-day Gas Exporting Countries’ Forum (GECF).

dimeji akinloye