A chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP) in Ekiti State, Hon Gboyega Akinola has warned President Muhammadu Buhari against repeating the errors he made as Military Head of State, regarding recovered assets. He also frowned at the non disclosure of identities of the identified treasury looters, saying that it might give room for suspicion and cast doubt on the genuineness of the anti- graft war.
Speaking in Ado-Ekiti, the former PDP secretary in the state recalled how Buhari, as Military leader in 1983 put up a dogged fight against corruption and recovered millions of naira, only to allow his former lieutenant, General Ibrahim Babangida, who later snatched power from him, squander it.
Akinola, therefore, charged Buhari to act fast on the matter, alleging that there were many potential looters in the All Progressives Congress (APC) led Federal Government.
The ex PDP scribe also alleged that the ongoing anti- graft war being championed by the APC led government was biased and extremely targeted at the opposition
According to him, the Federal Government had nothing to fear in doing this, since the identities of treasury looters had always been revealed in the past, arguing that their family members even worked freely, as nobody has private army or police to harass them.
“By not disclosing the identities of the looters, it appears the present government has something to hide. Buhari should realize that there are many potential treasury looters in this cabinet. If he don’t publish the names of looters against their loot, there is no way Nigerians can ascertain the actual assets recovered from these people.
“I am challenging the Federal Government on behalf Nigerians that it should let us know the names of the looters.
“For example, if one trillion naira is recovered from a particular looter and somebody is telling us that it is just N100billion, how would Nigerians know the truth?
Again, President Buhari must not repeat the mistake of 1983 about the recovered loot. If he does that, he would have himself to blame.
“I remember this was the same way he fought corruption as a military leader and jailed many politicians. Within a spate of two years or thereabouts, millions of Naira were recovered. And this was when naira had great value. He did not do anything with the loot until Babangida hijacked power from him and squandered it.”
The PDP chieftain suggested that half of the recovered assets should be shared among the 36 states on equal basis but with a caveat that such must be spent on the payment of outstanding salaries and on investment.
The Ikere-Ekiti born politician stressed that the measure must be taken in ernest to save the imminent collapse of the Presidential System of government.
“As we speak, more than 27, out of the 36 states of the Federation are indebted and many of them cannot even pay salaries of their workers.
“So, if we don’t really want the system to collapse, the half of the recovered assets should be shared among the 36 states on equal basis.
“Mr President must give the affected states the order that the monies should be used to pay outstanding salaries and investment in projects that would shore up their Internally Generated Revenue, (IGR).
“This, to me, is a long and short- term solution to the lingering economic problem. But the short term is for government to give them unconditional bailouts”, he further stated.