Criticism of Buhari’s anti-corruption war absurd – Osinbajo

Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, yesterday lambasted critics of President Muhammadu Buhari’s war against corruption, calling their reasoning “absurd”.

A statement by his spokesman, Laolu Akande, said Osinbajo spoke in Rwanda, where he represented the country at the meeting of the African Union.

Speaking with newsmen after the conclusion of the 27th Ordinary Session of the African Union, Osinbajo said those who looted the treasury were members or appointees of the then government.

Replying critics, Osinbajo said: “I think it (the allegation) is entirely absurd.

“I think that view is absurd and without foundation or basis whatsoever.

“We look at corruption from all possible facets.

“If you look at, for example, corruption in the military, from military procurement, obviously the only individuals responsible for that could be persons who had held office within the period in question and that has been done and clearly the opposition was not in the office at that time.

“Those who were in the office were not necessarily opposition individuals.

“These were Service Chiefs and other personnel who had served for a while.

“The other issues for example is the fraud and the corruption that is associated with large sums of money given out by the past National Security Adviser, which went to several political figures and again these were huge sums of money, over $2 billion, and the sheer size and the enormity of what we are talking about must not be diminished in any way or trivialised in anyway by any suggestion that it is partisan.

“How? In what way?

“I think those who make that suggestion obviously want to trivialise a very important programme of the government, a very important fight against corruption and also the strong effort to recover huge sums of money that have been stolen from Nigeria.”

#Osinbajo