Reno Omokri, a former presidential assistant on new media, has again lambasted Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo for his “persistent attacks” on ex-President Gooduck Jonathan.
He said it was no longer surprising that Aisha Yesufu, co-founder of #BringBackOurGirls, said the VP was her greatest disappointment in the Buhari administration.
The former presidential aide, in a statement Sunday morning, condemned latest comments by the presidency against the Jonathan government.
Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, had stated that “We have a situation where a former first lady came out openly to claim over $171m found in her accounts and you think Nigerians will simply overlook that.
“You have a situation where hundreds of billions have been recovered including the discovery of $43M cash in an apartment in Ikoyi, and you think Nigerians will simply forget that?”
Reacting, Omokri said: “First of all, there is no former First Lady from the Jonathan administration that has claimed $171 million in a bank account. Upon a promise of a suit for libel, I challenge Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to name that person.
“Why was the statement silent about proven and established cases of corruption right under the nose of the current administration like the multimillion Naira ‘grass cutter’ scam involving the immediate past Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, a man who has not been charged despite the obvious case against him, or the Maina scandal, where the biggest ever alleged thief in Nigeria’s civil service that was dismissed by the PDP government was recalled by the Buhari administration, reinstated into the civil service, given double promotion and (according to Junaid Mohammed) was given armed military escorts.
“What about the $25 billion contracts that were awarded without due process at the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation as detailed in the leaked memo from the minister of state for petroleum resources, and for which the Vice President himself was almost roped in and for which he had to issue a quick denial?
“What about the various padded budgets from the Buhari era that are a disgrace to decent people the world over?
“What about the fact that this government, after condemning the Jonathan administration for paying fuel subsidy, has turned around to secretly pay the same fuel subsidy that it claimed was a scam?
“Thankfully, the Vice President’s statement mentioned the Ikoyi Apartment $44 million. A panel was instituted to probe those funds. I challenge the Vice President to release the findings of that panel’s report to the public.
“Of major note is the sworn testimony by the former acting Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Mohammed Dauda, to the House of Representatives Committee On National Safety and Intelligence, that elements in the Presidency pressured him to share the fabled Ikoyi apartment $44 million with them.
“That the Vice President’s statement refused to mention these glaring cases of corruption but only cherry picked alleged corruption from previous administration is proof that the Buhari government is not interested in fighting corruption, it is only focused on fighting the opposition.
“If the Buhari administration were fighting corruption, it would not have registered Nigeria’s worst ever performance in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index where Nigeria moved 12 places backward from 136 to 148. This is after Nigeria had made its best ever performance in 2014 under former President Jonathan when we moved 8 places forward from 142 in 2013 to 136 in 2014.
“Only in an upside-down world does a government who took Nigeria backward on the corruption scale accuse an administration that took Nigeria forward. Only in a delusional regime does a President who scores 148 on the Transparency International CPI, go to a Ghana that scored 81 to offer to teach them how to fight corruption.
“The Buhari administration should instead have asked to take anti-corruption lessons from the Jonathan government and the Ghanaian President.
“And even members of this administration know that the joke is on them. Or how else would you describe the memo from the minister of finance to the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission querying him on why his public boasting of monies recovered from corrupt persons differ from the actual deposits made by the EFCC and requesting him to explain the difference.
“Obviously, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has forgotten his pastoral calling and has instead taken up the satanic calling of lying.
“It is not surprising that Aisha Yesufu, co-founder of #BringBackOurGirls, said that the Vice President was her greatest disappointment in the Buhari administration. A man who ought to be talking about how many jobs, projects and infrastructure his administration has delivered has been reduced to telling lies about a so called anti-corruption war that is unable to impress Transparency International or other global anti-corruption activists. How unfortunate.
“But perhaps the clearest indication of how Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has fallen from his pastoral calling is the fact that Pastor Osinbajo, is quick to publicly speak lies against Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and others. Yet this same man did not think it wise to say even one word of comfort to the parents of Leah Sharibu and the Christian community who are in deep anguish over her ordeal at the hands of Boko Haram.”
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