The Presidency has advised the PDP to stop distracting the President
with frivolous and unfounded allegations of selectivity in the war
against corruption.
Reacting to a PDP allegation by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr.
Olisa Metuh, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity,
Malam Garba Shehu, said contrary to the PDP allegations, President
Buhari has not and would not shield any APC government official from
facing prosecution for corruption.
The Presidential Spokesman explained that since President Buhari came
into office, he has never told the EFCC not to touch any APC Governor
because they belong to the same party.
According to Malam Garba, it was convenient for the PDP to remember
the cases of Sule Lamido, but it pretended not to notice the fact that
former Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, who is an APC member,
was also arrested and arraigned at the same time.
The Senior Special Assistant challenged Mr. Metuh to produce any
evidence or instance when President Buhari interfered in the
activities of the EFCC by telling them who to prosecute and who to
shield from prosecution.
Malam Garba Shehu also condemned as malicious and unfounded the
allegation by Metuh that funds from the Excess Crude Account are being
depleted by the Buhari administration to allegedly pay back APC
Governors that contributed to his presidential campaign.
Malam Garba Shehu advised Metuh to either come forward with evidence,
or apologize to Nigerians for willfully propagating falsehoods in
order to gain cheap publicity or public sympathy.
The Media aide said it was the responsibility of the former PDP
administration to prosecute APC and PDP Governors whose alleged cases
of corruption were brought to its attention.
He said if the unseated PDP administration had these facts against APC
governors, it was within its powers to prosecute them.
The Presidency also advised the PDP to stop crossing its bridges
before it came to them in order to intimidate the current
administration from going ahead with its resolve to fight corruption
at all levels.
On the allegation that the Buhari administration was secretly planning
to award oil refining licences to its cronies, the Presidency
describes the accusation as absurd and ridiculous, adding that
adherence to transparency and due process would always be President
Buhari’s philosophy on doing things.
The Presidential statement reiterated that the Buhari administration
is passionately committed to fighting corruption in all its
ramifications, and that no amount of blackmail, distraction and false
allegation would deflect his from this course in line with his
campaign promises.