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Tag: Muhammadu Buhari

  • 2019: Osinowo urges support for Buhari, Sanwoolu, APC

    The senatorial candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for Lagos East senatorial district and member representing Kosofe constituency 1 in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Bayo Osinowo, has called on Nigerians to vote for President Muhammadu Buhari during next month’s presidential election in order for the ruling party to deliver on all its electoral promises.

    Osinowo made the call at the weekend while speaking to newsmen on his plans for the good people of Lagos East and Lagos state as a whole. The senatorial candidate explained that his ambition to represent his people at the national assembly is borne out of his desire to touch more lives using public office. According to him, “the greatest work of life is to serve humanity and this I have been doing all my life as a politician.

    “As a legislator in Lagos State, I had the opportunity of working with others to pass bills and resolutions that made life better for the good people of Lagos State. I worked on progressive bills like the anti-land grabbing bills, among many others. Aside lawmaking, I was also able to impact on the lives of our people through numerous intervention and empowerment projects. My role in ensuring a cordial working relationship between the executive arm and the legislature in Lagos over the years is on record.”

    Appealing to the electorate to continue to support the APC, Osinowo said, “I want to call on you to use your PVCs to vote for me as the next senator representing Lagos East, President Buhari, Babajide Sanwoolu, the Lagos State APC governorship candidate, and all other APC candidates during the 2019 elections. APC governments in Lagos and Abuja had done a lot and will still do more beyond 2019.”

  • ‘Nigeria can’t be entrusted to Atiku’

    A foremost ally of President Muhammadu Buhari and National Coordinator of Buhari Awareness and Voters’ Guard, Engr. Kailani Muhammad has said that, Nigeria cannot be entrusted in the hands of former Vice President and PDP Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

    He said, Atiku unlike President Muhammadu Buhari, has a lot of corruption allegations and indictments hanging on his neck.

    Muhammad, a Chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), who addressed newsmen at his Kaduna office, stated categorically that, Atiku cannot be trusted with the economy of Nigeria.

    While arguing that, there is no alternative to APC presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 presidential race, Muhammad said that, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, has several cases of financial misconduct allegations levelled against him while he was the vice president between 1999 and 2007.

    According to the APC chieftain, “while most Nigerians across board see Buhari as reliable and predictable, many doubt Atiku’s credentials because it has enmeshed in so many fraudulent allegations for a long period of time.”

    Highlighting Buhari’s achievement upon why he should be reelected for a second term, he said, “in the three and a half years in the saddle, despite the challenges, Buhari has impacted on all partied the country through construction if 25 major roads and infrastructure in all the six geo-political zones – through the N100 billion Sukuk Bond issued in 2017.

    “For his foresight, the railway will soon be fully operational. Very soon, the Mambilla hydro power plant will generate 5,000 MW electricity. The Anchor Borrowers Scheme has made hundreds of peasant farmers to become millionaires overnight.

    “Nigeria’s economy is back on the path of growth, after the recession of 2016-17 (1.95 percent growth in Q1 2018), as the agriculture and solid minerals sector maintained consistent growth through the recession. External reserves rose to $47.5 billion, the highest in five years.

    Read Also: Miyetti Allah’s faction rejects Atiku

    “N2.7 billion spent on infrastructure in 2016 and 2017 fiscal years, an unprecedented allocation in Nigeria’s recent history. 14 moribund blending plants revitalised under the presidential fertilizer initiative (PFI), with a total production capacity of 2.3 million of MT of NPK fertilizer.”

    He continued, “Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (PIDF) in March 2018, invested  $10 million to establish a world-class cancer treatment centre at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and another $5million each in the Aminu Kano University Teaching Hospital  and the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, to establish modern diagnostic centres, expected to have been completed by now.”

    On Atiku he said, “$16 billion entrusted in Atiku’s care for the upgrade of power supply infrastructure disappeared into thin air and in 2007, the Senate pannel, chaired by Victoria Ndoma-Egba and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) indicted Atiku for diverting $145 million meant for the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) to various bank accounts linked to him between 1999 and 2006.

    “He was indicted by firmer Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro panel for sharing $74 million proceeds of the famous Halliburton bribe scandal to other top officials of the corrupt administration in which he served.

    “Atiku collected N100 million from former Governor if Plateau State, Joshua Dariye, being state’s ecological funds. When Darius cinfessed, former President Olusegun Obasanjo refunded his portion but Atiku held in to his till today and working freely while Dariye is cooling off in jail,” he alleged.

    He concluded by saying, “President Muhammadu Buhari has done exceedingly well and he is the only choice for 2019 that has the capacity and sincerity of purpose to salvage Nigeria from the brink of collapse.”

  • Ex-militants urge Buhari to dissolve NDDC board

    Ex-militants on Saturday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately dissolve the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) following lack of youth empowerment by the commission.

    The ex-warlords under the auspices Third Phase Federal Government Amnesty Programme urged Buhari to relieve the Managing Director of the commission, Mr. Nsima Ekere, of his appointment to enable him to focus on his political ambitions.

    They accused the board of insensitivity and loss of focus in evolving policies and programmes to empower the youths and curb criminality in the region.

    The Secretary-General of the Third Phase, Mr. Karo Edor, aka OBJ, in a statement in Yenagoa claimed that  Ekere allowed his personal political ambition to undermine the collective interest of the youths in the region.

    He said: “We frowned on the lukewarm and nonchalant and divide rule tactics of the NDDC boss and his inability to attract any meaningful and fair development to the youths.

    Read Also: Buhari, IGP meet in Aso Villa

    “We wish to remind Mr. Ekere, that he has not deem it fit to rally the NDDC and its board to award surveillance jobs, water hyacinth contracts and other road repair jobs in the region. We also condemn sabotage against the ex-militants”.

    Edor said the group was aware that a file containing the names of new NDDC board was being withheld by some presidential aides.

    He accused such aides of subverting the progress of the youths in the region and called on President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene and ensure constitution of a new board.

    “We are urging the President to release enough fund to the new board of the commission to enable the incoming board to carry out their constitutional functions to effectively impact on the youths and the region”, he said.

  • 53 suitcases haunt Atiku in Kebbi

    THE anger against the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Atiku Abubakar, in Kebbi State knows no bound for despising the 18th Emir of Gwandu, Alh. Haruna Rasheed, over the controversial 53 suitcases said to have been brought into the country during the tenure of Muhammadu Buhari as a military head of state. The suitcases,  flown into the country  when there was a change in national currency,  were reportedly cleared by his Aide-De-Camp (ADC),  Major Mustapha Jokolo, who was a son to the emir.

    But Atiku recently stoked the fire  in a statement issued by his spokesman, Paul Ibe. He said: “Our attention has been drawn to a statement by President Muhammadu Buhari accusing the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, Atiku Abubakar, of planning to smuggle in looted funds into the country just before the February 2019 elections. This new accusation, like their previous allegations, is another infantile outburst that tells more about the accuser than Atiku Abubakar. For the avoidance of doubt, history shows that rather than smuggle in looted cash, Waziri Atiku Abubakar has a record of preventing looted funds from being smuggled into Nigeria. In 1984, it was Atiku Abubakar, as head of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Command of the Nigerian Customs and Excise Department, that stopped the ADC of the then Military Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, from smuggling in 53 suitcases of looted money into the country.”

    The late emir, in the eyes of his subjects, ruled Gwandu Emirate with impeccable records for 42 years, but Atiku poured tar on the deceased as if he committed a sacrilege.  Sources tell Sentry that many emirs in the North and most indigenes of Kebbi State were miffed by the fact that Alhaji Atiku ignored a court pronouncement to play politics with the 53 suitcases and cast aspersions on the late traditional ruler, who was the only indigenous president of the Northern House of Chiefs and a former acting governor of the defunct Northern Region.

    Emir Mustapha Jokolo, who was then the  ADC to Buhari, had sued Africa Independent Television (AIT) over the documentary, “The Real Buhari”,  on the  same 53 suitcases and won the libel matter.  Candidate Atiku, it was thought, ought to have taken notice of the judicial pronouncement, but failed to do that. It is feared that Candidate Atiku, on account of the controversial statement, may have  lost the sympathy of many voters in the state. Alhaji Jokolo was more forthcoming when he sarcastically suggested: “All said and done, Atiku should not lose hope of being the President in 2023.” But what of 2019?

  • 2019 budget and the mirage called change

    IN January, 2016, this writer didn’t have the privilege to dissect President Muhammadu Buhari’s New Year message chiefly because there was an urgent need to address the humongous appropriations contained in the Appropriation Bill presented to the National Assembly at that time. Besides, the Christmas had been ‘celebrated’ with mournful solemnity by most families and it was important that one drew the attention of government to the puzzling financial allocations in its budgetary documents at a period when it was asking the people to tighten up their belts for an economic recession. Yes, Buhari did promise the citizenry better days in his first speech on New Year’s day as a democratically-elected President but there was simply nothing in the administration’ first national budget proposal to convince one that those in the seat of power would conform to the President’s famed ascetic lifestyle. Instead, what confronted us as a people was the fact that, even with its new ‘Change’ mantra, the administration would still have to pander to the questionable inputs and official frivolities that have been recurring decimals in our appropriation policy over the years. In that budget, billions of Naira was marked down as expenses on things worth not being repeated here. Those who wish to refresh their memory may wish to go through a piece published on this page on January 2, 2016 titled “Of Pain, Gain and Change.”

    Interestingly, as I settle down to put my thoughts together on this week’s piece this January 2, 2019, the first news item that popped up on my news flash was on the details of the 2019 budget. You see, when the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, tore into shred, the N8.83trn 2019 budget, describing it as “hopeless and deceptive” based on the benchmark which he said was higher than the current price of barrel of oil in the international market, you would have thought the man was knocking the truth on the head without a tint of treacherous politicking which Saraki and his ilk are known for. But that would be too simplistic a bait to swallow when available facts indicate that the National Assembly, with its adversarial role in the last three and a half years, has continued to stick to its tradition of farming billions of Naira to its own nest. It is, therefore, not surprising that, once again, the National Assembly is poised to get a one-off allocation of N125bn in the 2019 projections without a breakdown of what the money would be used for. Ask its leadership what it did with the allocations of the previous years and you are likely to get the standard response that whatever was allocated to the legislature was a mere insignificant percentage considering the entire budget figures. Perhaps, that also justifies why legislatives aides hardly get paid on time regardless of the huge sums paid to lawmakers monthly, outside the official allocations, to maintain offices that are often under lock and key as they go on recess at every drop of a pin!

    In as much as no one expects a legislature that is sold to its own shenanigans to be taken seriously, it is imperative for the President to always take a second look at the allocations to The Presidency before forwarding same to the National Assembly while ministers should be mandated to do same with Ministries, Departments and Agencies. As regards The Presidency, certain things just shouldn’t be allowed to creep into the list especially in an administration that promises change. For example, why, for the life of me, allocate almost N800m for the “mandatory upgrade and installation of live TV and internet service” on one of the presidential jets when it could have been converted to commercial use since it has such features? Who are the important personalities flying these jets anyway? If Buhari had sold off most of these jets in the presidential fleet as he threatened to do during the 2015 political campaigns, the government wouldn’t have been burdened with the responsibility of requesting for various sums of huge allocation to carry out a ‘compliance mandatory upgrade and installation of internet service on a second presidential aircraft (N50m)” and another upgrades on “other presidential air fleet” worth N650m. It is not just about how these characters bandy figures around and leave poor Nigerians aghast but also about probity and accountability which they promised with so much gusto four years ago. When the executive says that, in 2019 alone, it plans to spend N4.3bn on “annual maintenance of mechanical/electrical installations in Aso Rock outside the millions of naira that would go into foodstuffs/catering materials and refreshments, you cannot help but wonder if the leadership is not bent on eating the rest of the populace into poverty.

    Yearly, we criticise the National Assembly for spending billions on the purchase of cars for its members and bureaucracy.  But has anyone bothered to take an inventory of vehicle purchase by The Presidency? It has become a ritual that defies logic and common sense. If there is anything this administration has wittingly or unwittingly consigned to the dustbin of history, it is the monetization policy of the President Olusegun Obasanjo era. Today, it is not uncommon to see top government officials riding in convoys in Abuja. The other day at the Federal Secretariat, yours truly bumped into the convoy of the Head of Service of the Federation and wondered who could be after the life of such ‘poor’ public servant that she has to move under heavy security presence. I marvel at the array of cars on display in that convoy. Even some serving ministers can’t boast of such lifestyle. Anyway, someone muttered that some privileged directors do have escorts too. And that’s probably why the State House plans to spend a whopping N607m in 2019 for the “phased replacement of vehicles, spares and tyres” in its operational fleet while another N53m would go into the purchase of tyres for bullet proof vehicles, plain Toyota cars, CVU vehicles, Land Cruiser and Prado jeeps, ambulances and other utility operational vehicles. This, I must stress, is outside the N456m that would be spent on acquiring security and operational vehicles by the Office of the Chief Security Officer to the President. Phew!

    Sometimes, you just wonder when things would begin to change for the better as Buhari promised us in 2016. The answer seems far off. Do we assume that the President is unaware of the saying that the devil is in the details? Shouldn’t it concern all of us that too many loose words are being used to justify the allocation of scarce resources? Why is The Presidency vague on the number, type, models and brands of the ‘operational vehicles’ that would be purchased, serviced, sold or phased out? What, if I may ask, is so special about a detention facility that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission would be spending over N2bn to complete the one in Gombe State; another N3.1bn to expand the one in Port Harcourt; and over N2.6bn for the Maiduguri detention camp? Well, as it is, this country must be brimming with corrupt elements that we not construct more detention facilities than factories!

    The question is: what rigours go into budgeting especially allocations to key government agencies? It appears the officials simply apply the cut and paste rule in which minor adjustments are carried out on past documents and then submitted as fresh budgetary projections. Nothing else could justify the needless repetitions of items on the bill every year. For the avoidance of doubt, it was the malaise that plagued the Peoples Democratic Party-led government for 16 years until it was booted out. I hasten to say that I am yet to see any significant difference in approach as cases of padding and actual tampering of figures with the connivance of the legislature persist. With the exclusive snippets published by this paper in the last few days, it is difficult not to believe the joke out there that no serious brainwork goes into what has become a routine by those who handle the annual ritual. That the cut and paste theorist could be right is a scary possibility. But what is scarier is the fact that the nation will continue to be progressively moving in circles if it doesn’t free itself from the shackles of allocating resources to white elephants. Perhaps, that is the perspective from which one can understand Saraki’s blurred vision of hopelessness and deception in the 2019 Appropriation Bill even if he wouldn’t acknowledge that it is the same old story where he superintends as leader.

    In 2016, I had admonished the President to, among other things, “re-jig the Presidency’s appropriations to reflect the pain he claims to feel for the suffering masses.” I said it was a tall order then knowing the way the bureaucracy works. Three years after, I’m sorry to say that profligate budgeting appears to be having a swell time – meaning there is no change in a promised era of change! And that’s a pity.

  • Aisha Buhari: blood thicker than water

    THE First Lady, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, on New Year ‘s Eve stunned the opposition and proved critics wrong when she raised a 700-member campaign team to support President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election bid. The development dispelled rumours of a strain in the relationship between the First Lady and her husband over the 2019 poll. A source in the presidency said the First Lady has never said she won’t support the second term aspiration of the President.

    The source said although she has always criticized the administration of her husband, she believes President Buhari deserves a second term in office. He said: “There is nothing like a change of mind against the second term  bid of the President. She is fully in support of her husband’s re-election.  It is untrue, she has never said that the President should not take a shot at the presidency again. In fact, when she went through the list of members of the Presidential Campaign Council of the APC, she observed some mobilization gaps to be filled. And she worked with the party to produce a list in order to take the re-election campaign to the grassroots. She is actually going for broke, she is coming out forcefully to campaign for her husband. Her occasional criticisms of the administration of President Buhari were to exercise her democratic rights.”

    What the source did not tell Sentry is that blood is thicker than water. No matter the tension in the “Other Room” a good wife is always expected to support her spouse.

  • Helicopter crash: Buhari condoles with Nigerian Air Force

    President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed heartfelt condolences to the Nigerian Air Force, and relations of five people who lost their lives in a military helicopter crash January 2 in Damasak, Borno State.

    The President mourned Flight Lieutenant Perowei Jacob (Pilot in Command), Flight Lieutenant Kaltho Paul Kilyofas (Co-Pilot), Sergeant Auwal Ibrahim (Flight Technician), Lance Corporal Adamu Nura (Gunner), and Aircraftman Meshack Ishmael (Gunner), who died in the mishap.

    Read Also: I won’t disappoint, Buhari assures

    Commiserating with the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, President Buhari, in a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and publicity, Femi Adesina, said it was sad that the fine officers and men lost their lives in the bid to guarantee the safety and protection of their countrymen.

    He said rather than dampen the morale of troops fighting insurgency in the North-East, the unfortunate development would rather bolster their resolve to completely eliminate all evildoers within the shortest possible time.

    To the families and relations of the dead, President Buhari condoled with them, noting that the dead officers and men were heroes, who paid the supreme price for peace to reign in the country.

     

  • I won’t disappoint, Buhari assures

    President Muhammadu Buhari has appreciated the confidence reposed in him by Nigerians from different walks of life, vowing; “I won’t disappoint.”

    The President spoke Thursday at State House, Abuja, as he was decorated Grand Patron of the Nigerian Media Merit Award (NMMA) by the Board of Trustees of the prime media awards organization in the country.

    Buhari, in a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and publicity, Femi Adesina, described the investiture as “a timely honour,”

    According to him, he had known a good number of the members of the NMMA board, “since the time I didn’t even know I would be here.”

    Read Also: ‘Buhari will lead Nigeria beyond 2019’

    Former Director-General of the Nigerian Television Authority, Engr. Vincent Maduka, who led the delegation, said President Buhari was qualified to be grand patron, “because you respect the rights of the media to practice, without any hindrance.”

    It was noted that under President Buhari, no media house has been shut, and the first ever campus television license was awarded to the University of Lagos, under the chairmanship of veteran Mass Communication teacher, Professor Ralph Akinfeleye.

    Engineer Maduka said the NMMA was established in 1990, to promote excellence in Nigerian media, and has hosted 26 grand award presentations, with the latest holding just a week ago.

    Part of the goals of NMMA, he added, was the promotion of patriotism, and unity of the country.

  • It’s no fun governing Adamawa, says Bindow

    Amidst intra-party opposition mounted mostly by fellow All Progressives Congress (APC) party men who aspired against him for the party’s governorship  ticket in last October’s primary election,  the state governor, Senator Mohammed Jibrilla Bindow, said Thursday that governing the state is a difficult  task.

    Only on Wednesday, Bindow’s closest challenger to the governorship ticket of the party in that primary, Ahmed Mahmood (Modi) and his frontline supporter, Babachir Lawal, had addressed the media, asserting that Bindow is not qualified for the APC’s ticket in view of a certificate forgery allegation against him, and that the party would lose the state if Bindow remained the flag bearer. Similarly, Bindow’s other challenger in the party’s governorship primary election held in October 2018, Nuhu Ribadu, who had always questioned the primary election that produced Bindow as the standard bearer for the March 2019 governorship election, had indicated his unwillingness to support Bindow when he handed his re-branded campaign offices and cars to President Muhammadu Buhari for his presidential re-election campaign.

    Making an indirect reference to the criticism against his government and candidacy of the APC  at a function Thursday in Yola, Bindow said governing the state  is no tea party and that he is too preoccupied with the difficult issues of governance to bandy words with opposition.

    Speaking at the inauguration of Next Level, a campaign programme initiated for him and President Muhammadu Buhari by a support group, Home Front, Bindow said, “I am focused at leaving a legacy behind. I have seen that some people must find things to say against me. I won’t join issues with them. I just want to face what I am here for. There are things I am doing that were not seen before. It is daunting governing Adamawa. When people talk as if it is easy, I laugh; but God brought me in and has been finding ways for me.”

    Read Also: Bindow presents N230bn for 2019 fiscal year

    Reporters sought his attention after the Home Front event at the City Green Hotel in Jimeta, Yola, on the claim by Modi that he (Modi) could still beat him to the APC ticket, and the assertion by Babachir that APC would lose Adamawa if it fields him (Bindow) as the governorship candidate because of issues surrounding his secondary school certidicate, Bindow abstained from a direct comment, saying the case is in court; but a former National Vice Chairman of the APC (Northeast), Dr Umaru Duhu, had addressed the media earlier in the day, accusing Babachir of anti-party activity and seeking his expulsion from the party.

    Duhu said during the briefing at the Correspondents’ Chapel in Yola Thursday morning, “Primaries of the party were conducted at all levels. A loyal party man, whether he benfitted or not, should wish his party to win general elections at all levels by embracing the candidates that were elected. It beats my imagination that somebody in the caliber of BD (Babachir David) Lawal who was the second national vice chairman of this party after me will come out to say that APC will lose Adamawa if Bindow is fielded as the candidate. It’s sad and I feel I owe it as a duty to reply Mr BD Lawal and to say it is tantamount to anti-party activity punishable under the laws of the APC.”

    Duhu said however that he is satisfied that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which has the power to disqualify candidates, had certified Bindow fit for the APC governorship candidacy, and appealed to Adamawa people to vote for him come March for a second term as governor.

  • Atiku showing acts of desperation, says BMO

    The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has accused former Vice President and presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) of sponsoring fake news against the Nigerian military and President Muhammadu Buhari, saying such action was an act of desperation and lack of patriotism.

    In a statement signed by the Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, the group said recent untrue claims of terrorists’ attacks on the military, desertion by Police personnel; allegations of corruption scandals in the military hierarchy and the resurfacing of a 2014 claim by soldiers of lack of weaponry are sponsored fake news by the opposition candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

    According to the group, the Atiku Abubakar campaign Organisation have no issues to put forward in their campaign and has resorted to sponsoring fake news items aimed at tarnishing the image of Nigeria’s Armed Forces and security personnel.

    It said: “Atiku Abubakar’s desperation knows no bounds; his recent moves to sponsor narrative through fake news that paint Nigeria’s security personnel as weak and incapable of carrying out their duties, is an example of the PDP candidate’s desperation and lack of patriotism.

    “The PDP campaign, finding no fault in the current leadership of the Nigerian Army, had begun sponsoring old videos from 2014 with the aim of selling a narrative that suggests that the military under President Buhari has not been well-taken care of like it was during their 16 year rule of malfeasance.”

    It said further that a recent report by an American firm making unbacked claims that the recently slain former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Vice Marshal Alex Badeh, was killed to hide corruption under the current Defence leadership was fake news and the handiwork of Mr Brian Ballard, the United States lobbyist Atiku procured at $90,000 a month.

    The group said “It is shameful that a former Vice President of Nigeria would procure the service of an American lobby firm to sponsor fake news aimed at attacking the morale and credibility of Nigeria’s Armed Forces.

    “In addition to this is the hiring of foreign trolls to man their online handles in a way that is  against National interest. The whole aim is to destroy national institutions including INEC and cause confusion after realizing that they have lost the contest even before the votes are cast.

    Read Also: Why we dumped Atiku, PDP – Bello

    “This goes to emphasize the fact that Mr Abubakar does not have Nigeria’s interest at heart and must be kept far away from the seat of power. The PDP has nothing to sell to Nigerians; it has a candidate who is notorious for corruption allegations and is distrusted across the globe; asides being the candidate of a party responsible for the pillage of Nigeria’s treasury.”

    The group asks Nigerians to be wary of Atiku and his party as they would begin promoting fake news items in attempts to compare the Buhari administration to their horrid past.

    They accused the PDP Presidential candidate’s media handlers of lying when they claimed that President Buhari has a record of trafficking illicit funds, saying “It is a blatant lie that Atiku Abubakar, as head of Customs at the Lagos airport in 1984 stopped the ADC of the then Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, from smuggling in 53 suitcases of looted money.

    “This is a matter that was settled back then. The suitcases were the personal belonging of the then Nigerian Ambassador to Libya who was returning to the country after his tour of duty with his three wives and sixteen children.

    “The late Ambassador was coming into the country at the same time as the Emir of Gwandu whose son was General Buhari’s ADC and his suitcases were falsely presented to the public as those of the Emir.

    “So from all indications, the suitcases which were cleared through Customs by soldiers had nothing to do with Buhari and there was nothing to suggest that illicit funds were being brought into the country.

    “Nigerians must be wary in the coming weeks. The party which has no agenda to sell would continue promoting lies on the media. It would, like one of its recent converts, begin to trivialize the impact of corruption and even attempt to normalize it; Nigerians must fight and reject this.”