Adams Oshiomole urges Buhari to go after Goodluck for approving spending beyond his powers

FORMER Edo State governor Adams Oshiomole has urged the federal government to arrest and charge ex-president Dr Goodluck Jonathan with corruption offences for approving money beyond his powers and spending it in a way that was not accounted for.

Since the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office in 2015, it has been obsessed with recovering loot acquired by the previous government. President Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC), came to power with a promise to end corruption but the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) it replaced has alleged that the prosecution of suspected looters is selective.

Although Dr Jonathan himself has not been charged or investigated for any offence, his name has cropped up in the prosecution of several former officials. Chief among these is the $1.2bn security vote scandal under which money from the office of the former national security adviser meant to purchase military hardware found its way into private pockets, with some of the funds used to bankroll the PDP's election campaign.

Several of those charged with impropriety have maintained their innocence, pointing out that they were only carrying out instructions handed out to them by the former president. Speaking in Benin, the Edo State capital over the weekend, Governor Oshiomole faulted the calls by the PDP that the National Assembly should approve the $1bn approved by the federal government to battling insurgency.

Claiming that the party had no moral right to be critical, Governor Oshiomole said the PDP spent well above that sum without going to the National Assembly. On the condemnation that trailed the release of looters’ list, Governor Oshiomole said names of looters should be made public as it was the right of Nigerians to know the level of rot that transpired.

He urged President Buhari to be ruthless in going against those alleged to have looted the nation’s resources. In addition, the former governor stated that hired writers were made to challenge him when he first raised alarm over the money that was looted from the treasury.

Governor Oshiomole said: “I hear them say prosecution is selective. Maybe they are right because if they are not maybe President Jonathan should be in the dock as he approved money beyond his powers and spent it in a way that is not accounted for.

“I think that if other Nigerians don’t understand the power of transparency, the right to know, the media should uphold that right and defend it. What was stolen was not from private purses, the house that was destroyed was not a private residence either as we are talking of resources, which if it is distributed on basis of equality and divide by 180m people, you will be a lot richer."

He pointed out that the former acting chairmen of PDP, Ahmed Makarfi, said that the reason they did not indict former petroleum minister Diezani Alison-Madueke was because the money missing under her watch was approved by President Jonathan. Governor Oshiomole said that even if the president approved that money, it should not have been stolen but should have gone into the federation account.