A former deputy national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to entertain, habour or negotiate soft landing deals with ex-government officials known to have abused their offices by looting the nation’s treasury.
Frank who made this appeal in a statement in Abuja, lamented that the zeal of the President in going after corrupt elements during his early days in office seems to have waned or completely dead.
He urged the President to rev up his drive to make corrupt officials account for their stewardship in order not to make the arrest and ongoing investigation of the Governor of the Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele and Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, AbdulRasheed Bawa to appear as being vendetta driven.
He also called on the President not to reward ex-governors and ex-ministers with corruption cases or criminal allegations against them by the anti-graft agencies with fresh appointment “as doing so would make his anti-corruption drive a mere child’s play.”
He urged the security agencies executing the anti-corruption battle under Tinubu to extend their probe to the oil and gas sector by ensuring that those who fraudulently benefitted from the fuel subsidy regime and bogus daily PMS consumption in the country are made to refund the people’s money they looted in the process.
Frank said: “From all indications, your (Tinubu’s) government is negotiating with looters and that is the reason why up till now we have not seen any new action against looters after the arrest and detention of Emefiele and Bawa.
“Many Nigerians were happy and commended the actions you took on these arrests but at this time we think a lot of the people who looted the country under ex-President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration would have by now been arrested and being prosecuted in court.
“Unfortunately, no further action has been taken to bring them to justice and information at our disposal shows that a lot of these looters are negotiating with your government for a soft landing.
“Most importantly, the zeal with which you started the fight against corruption which Nigerians applauded with the hope that you have come to surprise the country by genuinely fighting corruption has clearly died down and probably may not happen again.
“If care is not taken, it might turn out that Emefiele and Bawa were just victims.
“From your body language so far, we don’t think you are ready to genuinely continue the fight against corrupt government officials but only after those perceived not to have supported your bid to emerge as President.
“Otherwise there are a lot of looters out there which despite the plethora of evidence of corrupt tendencies against them are going around freely and it is very likely that nothing will happen to them anymore.”
Frank who is the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) Ambassador to East Africa and the Middle East, said the masses are suffering from hardship occasioned by Tinubu’s policies like fuel subsidy removal, insisting that those who fraudulently benefited from the subsidy regime should not be allowed to go unpunished.
“Since the beginning of this administration, innocent Nigerians are the ones suffering and unfortunately they are being told to be patient in their excruciating miseries by the government.
“How long would the poor be patient while those who looted their wealth are walking free and enjoying their loot? Now the poor masses are suffering from skyrocketing cost of living because of the removal of fuel subsidy and the imminent increase in electricity tariffs,” he said.
He reminded the President that Nigerians and the members of the international community are watching to see if he is genuine in his anti-graft drive or just flying kites with Emefiele and Bawa.
