The Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has lambasted the
former President, Goodluck Jonathan for claiming that his former National
Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki did not steal the $2.1 billion arms
purchase fund for which he is presently facing prosecution.
The party said that by that claim, Jonathan has proved beyond doubts that
he knew everything about the arms purchase scandal as well as the many
other hair-raising corruption cases that happened in his regime, contrary
to the picture he creates among Nigerians.
In a release in Lagos, signed by the Lagos State Publicity Secretary of
the APC, Joe Igbokwe, the party said there should be a limit to defending
such hefty corruption acts, which greatly compromised the nation’s
security and led to the loss of thousands of precious Nigerian lives. It
cautions Jonathan not to continue to play on the intelligence of
Nigerians, still smarting from the horrendous cases of corruption that
were perpetrated under him.
“Even as we concede that Jonathan is on a desperate bid to rehabilitate
himself, we wouldn’t believe that a former president should be so
contemptuous of the intelligence of Nigerians as to give the kind of
defence he gave to Sambo Dasuki. We wonder what Jonathan makes of the
horrid details that are emanating from the Dasukigate issue with shocking
evidences, confessions and even refunds made by those that participated in
that monumental corruption.
“To claim that Dasuki and his partners did not steal the arms purchase
fund reveals the inner beliefs of Jonathan and explains that he is
intrinsically webbed to corruption. Even while he is perceived as
pathologically corrupt and his regime seen as the most corrupt in
Nigeria’s chequered history, one would have expected Jonathan to be
cautious in seeking to advance very childish and inadmissible exculpation
of his subordinates for glaring acts of corruption.We had expected that
jJonathan would have striven to water down the lowly impression held of
him by Nigerians and the international community by not deciding to be so
patronising to clear cases of corruption by his subordinates. But with
each day, Jonathan continues to baffle by his chameleonic acts.
“By Jonathan’s cheap defence of Sambo Dasuki, we believe time has come for
the security agencies to pick up Jonathan to tell the nation all that he
knows of the many cases of corruption that happened under him. We think
that Jonathan knows more than he admits about the unseemly corruption that
he presided over and should be brought in for questioning. We don’t
believe any thing shields Jonathan from prosecution for corruption as we
believe it is becoming indefensible for Jonathan to pretend he was
innocent of the corrupt acts of his subordinates.
“While we condemn Jonathan’s cheeky defence of Dasuki, even in the face of
monumental damning evidences, we want to state that the anti corruption
war is incomplete until Jonathan is prosecuted for he continually proves,
by such defence of his corrupt subordinates, that he knew everything that
transpired in his corruption-ridden regime.”
Joe Igbokwe Publicity Secretary, Lagos