Respond to Etisalat, Keystone bank allegations or resign, PDP stalwart tells Buhari
A former presidential aspirant under the All Progressives Congress (APC) and now a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Charles Udoka Udeogaranya has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to respond to allegations that his family has acquired major shares in two multi-billion Dollars companies, ETISALAT and Keystone Bank Plc or resign from his position.
Udeogaranya who decamped from APC to the PDP at a ceremony in Lagos, said as a Nigerian and stakeholder in the country’s socio-political development, he received with shock such news that family members of Buhari, who claims to be a man of integrity and incorruptible, now own substantial shares in Etisalat (9mobile) Nigeria which has an estimated $2b (about N727b at 360 per dollar) of its estimated $20b global net worth.
“In my view, it will account to unbearable wickedness for a President whose government has meted out chronic and grinding poverty and harsh economic conditions to her citizenry to be enmeshed in a scandal of such magnitude involving members of his family. What this means is that, while millions of Nigerians suffer poverty and die in the process duly largely to harsh economic policies of the administration, the first family flourishes in questionable wealth.
“I, therefore, urge President Buhari to personally and expeditiously respond to these allegations in order to clear his name and family especially as the allegations are coming from very high quarters that cannot be ignored. This is not a time for some aides of the president to make terse explanations laced with lame excuses. The president should as a matter of urgency and regard to the sensibilities of Nigerians personally respond to the issues, one after the other,” Chief Udeogaranya said.
According to him, Nigerians will adjudge Buhari’s silence as an affirmation of the weighty allegations raised, “particularly when these allegations are brought to the public domain by a man who is in the position to know what is going on in the nation’s business circles,” he concluded.
It would be recalled that former vice president and presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Atiku Abubakar had on Wednesday called on relevant authorities in Nigeria to institute a probe in order to unmask the new owners of telecoms giant, Etisalat Nigeria and Keystone Bank.
Atiku, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said it has become necessary to carry out such probes in view of reports that suggest that members of President Muhammadu Buhari’s family now own substantial share in Etisalat Nigeria which has an estimated $2 billion (about N727 billion at 360 per dollar) of its estimated $20 billion global net worth.
He also alleged that impeachable sources have it that Buhari and his family have acquired mouthwatering shares in Keystone Bank with total assets of $1.916 billion (equivalent to N307.5 billion) as well as purchasing about ₦3 billion worth of shares in the new Pakistani Islamic Bank.
In the same vein, a former political ally of the President, Alhaji Buba Galadima had appeared on a Channels TV programme where he said that the president’s much-touted “integrity,” is a rouse, alleging that many of the president’s relatives and close associates that were bankrupt before 2015 were now billionaires.
“In my view, it will account to unbearable wickedness for a President whose government has meted out chronic and grinding poverty and harsh economic conditions to her citizenry to be enmeshed in a scandal of such magnitude involving members of his family. What this means is that, while millions of Nigerians suffer poverty and die in the process duly largely to harsh economic policies of the administration, the first family flourishes in questionable wealth.
“I, therefore, urge President Buhari to personally and expeditiously respond to these allegations in order to clear his name and family especially as the allegations are coming from very high quarters that cannot be ignored. This is not a time for some aides of the president to make terse explanations laced with lame excuses. The president should as a matter of urgency and regard to the sensibilities of Nigerians personally respond to the issues, one after the other,” Chief Udeogaranya said.
According to him, Nigerians will adjudge Buhari’s silence as an affirmation of the weighty allegations raised, “particularly when these allegations are brought to the public domain by a man who is in the position to know what is going on in the nation’s business circles,” he concluded.
It would be recalled that former vice president and presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Atiku Abubakar had on Wednesday called on relevant authorities in Nigeria to institute a probe in order to unmask the new owners of telecoms giant, Etisalat Nigeria and Keystone Bank.
Atiku, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said it has become necessary to carry out such probes in view of reports that suggest that members of President Muhammadu Buhari’s family now own substantial share in Etisalat Nigeria which has an estimated $2 billion (about N727 billion at 360 per dollar) of its estimated $20 billion global net worth.
He also alleged that impeachable sources have it that Buhari and his family have acquired mouthwatering shares in Keystone Bank with total assets of $1.916 billion (equivalent to N307.5 billion) as well as purchasing about ₦3 billion worth of shares in the new Pakistani Islamic Bank.
In the same vein, a former political ally of the President, Alhaji Buba Galadima had appeared on a Channels TV programme where he said that the president’s much-touted “integrity,” is a rouse, alleging that many of the president’s relatives and close associates that were bankrupt before 2015 were now billionaires.
