Buhari’s anti-graft war not targeted at PDP, says Osinbajo
From the nation’s Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, came, on Monday, a declaration that the Federal Government’s anti-corruption crusade was not targeted at the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its members.
The declaration by Osinbajo came against the backdrop of allegations that the present administration’s anti-graft war is one-sided and that it is targetted at the PDP and its members.
But the Osinbajo categorically stated that such claim was far from the truth.
Speaking at the 2016 Annual Conference organised by Mallam Bashir Yusuf-led Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Osinbajo pointed out that what the federal government is doing was to recover public funds diverted for campaign purposes by the previous administration.
The Vice President, who was represented by his Special Assistant on Political Parties, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, said,
His words, “The war against corruption is not targeted at the opposition parties.
“What government is doing now is that money meant for essential services should not be diverted for campaigns or any other purposes,” he stated.
He added that the aim was to bring sanity to the polity in order to sustain democracy in the country.
The President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government, Osinbajo stated, recognised the critical role of opposition parties in deepening democracy but stressed that they should be careful with public funds.
According to him, “Politics and elections should not be war or depletion of public resources. Never again will government agencies be used in favour of any political party to win elections”.
The Vice-President revealed that investigations conducted by the administration showed that a huge chunk of money meant for the purchase of arms to fight Boko Haram insurgents in the North East was diverted into private pockets while part of the money was used for political campaigns by the party in power.
The trend, he insisted, cannot be allowed to continue.
He thus called on IPAC to play critical role in educating political parties and the general public, and ensuring that democracy survives in Nigeria.
In his words, “Some military men went to the battle with 10 bullets, some went with nothing while others went with obsolete weapons,”.
In his speech, the Senate President Bukola Saraki, who represented by his special adviser on legal and constitutional matters, Ibrahim Tukur El-Jadi stated that to truly develop and sustain the flames of Nigeria’s democratic fires, politicians must fan these flames with ideologies.
Saraki said, “We must work towards creating a system of responsible political behaviour both within and outside our parties – letting our supporters know that violence in all its forms will not be tolerated by party and its proxies.
“To put an end to violence in politics, we must go a step further by imposing strict and heavy legal and political sanctions on those that may choose to perpetrate violence on behalf of our parties,” Saraki stated.
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu revealed that 41 associations have so far applied to the commission to be registered as political parties.
