Maria Ajogwu
The Campaign for Democracy (CD) has described the recent release of alleged looters’ lists by the Federal Government as completely jaundiced by a sheer display of insincerity.
The CD in a press release issued, on Tuesday, by its General Secretary, Comrade Ifeanyi Odili, lamented that the list omitted the names of former PDP members who are now in the ruling APC, noting that corruption allegations against such persons have been dropped on partisan grounds.
Specifically, the body cited the case of Dr. Femi Thomas, a former Executive Secretary/Chief Operating Officer of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) who defected from the PDP to the APC and as such, had corruption cases against him dropped.
The CD also complained of how nothing has been heard again on corruption charges against a former Minister of Police Affairs, Musiliu Obanikoro, and the former governor of Enugu State, Sullivan Chime, once they crossed over to the APC.
It said President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade, much as it is commendable on the surface, is completely jaundiced by a sheer display of insincerity, when examined generally.
“The CD has observed with dismay that all the people that had been picked up at one time or the other over corruption allegations were members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
“But we also observed that once these people renounced their membership of the PDP and cross over to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) they automatically become saints. All charges against them will either be promptly dropped or technically frustrated by the anti-graft agencies that brought up the charges.
“A particularly appalling case is the several cases of corruption levelled against the immediate past Executive Secretary/Chief Operating Officer of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), who was being investigated for alleged flagrant abuse of financial rules and regulations, executive rascality, embezzlement of public funds and monumental diversion of government funds by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission (ICPC).
“This same man, who was a former Commissioner for Health in Ekiti State was in 2016 arraigned before a Federal High Court in Lagos over an alleged payment of $2.2million Dollars without going through a financial institution.
“But the moment this man crossed over from PDP to APC, he has become a free man and he is now dictating political tunes in his Ekiti home town as he goes about with impunity.
“What do we say of the former Minister of Police Affairs, Musiliu Obanikoro? Where are the corruption charges preferred against him? Or Sulivan Chime, the former governor of Enugu State, who defected from the PDP to the APC? All their sins have been forgiven them,” the CD lamented.
It thus demanded that “in the spirit of fairness, all those facing corruption allegations must return to the courts to have their days.”
“Otherwise, the anti-corruption crusade of the Buhari government is a total ruse and must by rejected by all right-thinking Nigerians,” the CD warned.