Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has urged President Mohammadu<\/p>\n
Buhari to stop acting like the grandfather of corruption in Nigeria by
\nshielding his men from probe, just as he asked Nigerians to demand the
\nrelease of the authentic report of the Committee on Audit of Defence
\nEquipment Procurement in the Nigerian Armed Forces.<\/p>\n
He described claim by the federal government that the probe panel only
\nlooked into procurement and contracts awarded by the military between
\n2011-2015 because documents regarding procurement from 2007 to 2010
\nwere not available as a clear indication of his support for
\ncorruption.<\/p>\n
In a statement issued on Sunday by his Special Assistant on Public
\nCommunications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose said \u201cit
\nis now obvious to the entire world that anyone that is in President
\nBuhari\u2019s good books can never be adjudged as corrupt even if such a
\nperson is caught looting the entire money in Nigeria\u2019s treasury.\u201d<\/p>\n
The governor said it smacked of sheer hypocrisy and nepotism for
\nanyone to accept that fraud could have been perpetrated on procurement
\nand award of contracts in an establishment without the involvement of
\nthe director of procurement.<\/p>\n
“There are many petitions relating to the defence from 2007 that are
\nbeen discarded, the question is why? There are several petitions
\nagainst APC leaders that are not being looked into, the question is
\nwhy?<\/p>\n
“Fghting corruption and targeting only opponents of the president is
\nin itself corruption,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said; \u201cBuhari\u2019s\u2019 Minister of Interior, Major General Abdulrahman
\nDambazau (rtd) was Chief of Army Staff between 2008 and 2010 and the
\ncurrent Chief Of Army Staff, Major General Tukur Buratai served as
\nDirector of Procurements, Defence Headquarters, from 2012 till May
\n2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a fact that the committee in its terms of reference said it
\nqueried all procurement from 2007 to 2015. Even the Press Release
\nissued was titled; \u2018Third Interim Report of the Presidential Committee
\non Audit of Defence Equipment Procurement from 2007 to 2015.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst paragraph of the committee report also indicated that it used
\n2007-2015 as reference, stating that the committee \u2018analysed
\nprocurement contracts awarded by or for the Nigerian Army between 2007
\nand 2015.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cQuestions Nigerians must now begin to ask President Buhari and his
\ngovernment are; where is the report of Presidential Committee on Audit
\nof Defence Equipment Procurement relating to 2007 to 2010? Who
\ndoctored the committee report and why?<\/p>\n
\u201cLai Mohammed said the Committee would commence the audit of
\nprocurement from 2007 to 2010 \u2018as soon as the necessary documents are
\navailable\u2019, it is necessary that Nigerians are told who the custodians
\nof the documents are. Why were documents on procurement from 2011 and
\n2015 available and those of 2007 to 2010 not available?<\/p>\n
“Early this year, we were told that an ally of President Buhari and
\nchieftain of the APC, Brig. General Jafaru Isa (rtd) refunded N100
\nmillion of the N170 million he allegedly received from ex-NSA, Sambo
\nDasuki.<\/p>\n
“Jafaru Isa who was a member of the 19-man Buhari Transition Committee
\nwas released after he was allegedly assisted by the Presidency to
\nrefund N100 million to the anti-graft commission and since then,
\nnothing has been heard about the case. He was not charged to court
\nlike others.<\/p>\n
“It took the Ministry of Defence and the Code of Conduct Bureau only
\none week to clear Buratai but others from the opposition party would
\nbe languishing in prison while EFCC go about fishing for evidence
\nagainst them.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike I and other well-meaning Nigerians have maintained, fighting
\ncorruption is a good idea but the moment documents of probe panels and
\nbeing doctored to shield those seen as the President\u2019s men, the entire
\npurpose of the corruption fight has been defeated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe international community must therefore prevail on President
\nBuhari to stop acting like the grandfather of corruption in Nigeria by
\nmaking the anti-corruption war all-inclusive instead of this clear
\npersecution of his perceived political enemies, and the first step to
\ndemonstrate that will be the immediate release of report of the
\nPresidential Committee on Audit of Defence Equipment Procurement
\ncovering 2007 to 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has urged President Mohammadu Buhari to stop acting like the grandfather of corruption in Nigeria by shielding his men from probe, just as he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n