Nigeria Content Online

A former governor
of Oyo State, Lam Adesina, has cautioned President Goodluck Jonathan
not to shield governors facing allegations of corruption from
investigation.

Mr. Adesina, who is
also the leader of the Action Party of Nigeria (ACN) in the state, at
the weekend, accused the president of preparing a soft-landing for some
governors allegedly implicated in cases before the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by preventing the commission from
pressing the cases to ensure that they do not return to office next
year.

The opposition
politician said many of the governors, who are members of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), are hiding under Mr Jonathan’s presidential
ambition to escape the law.

“We have it on a
good authority that President Jonathan recently called the chairman of
the commission, Mrs. Farida Waziri, to the Presidential Villa where he
ordered her to stop forthwith, further prosecution of the serving
corrupt governors while her attention should be focused on former
governors who were not well disposed to his ambition to return to Villa
in 2011,” Mr. Adesina said.

He said the
development could set a bumpy trap for the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC), whose chairman, Attahiru Jega, has, at
different forums, reiterated their readiness to give credible elections
to the nation and its people next year.

“Apart from the
fact that such corrupt governors, mostly drawn from the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), came into office through the back door created
by the infamous do-or-die antic of former President Olusegun Obasanjo
in 2007, they have manifested total disaster in governance and allowing
them to repeat the fraud in 2011 would spell doom for the country and
the states they come from in particular,” said the former governor.

Making reference to
the current governor of Oyo State, Adebayo Alao-Akala, whom he
described as one of the affected governors, Mr. Adesina said the
governor has shown lack of respect for the public purse.

“The incumbent, who
has numerous substantiated cases of official corruption and looting of
public funds hanging on his neck but could not be made to answer for
these cases at present owing to the immunity he enjoys as a sitting
governor. But the same man is busy creating panic in the state and
beyond in his preparation for another term in office,” he said.

“It is to the
common knowledge of the people that Mr Alao-Akala does not care a hoot
when it comes to siphoning public funds, going by his antecedents; but
he added another dimension recently when he purchased 1,000 brand new
buses and cars from the government funds to pursue his electioneering
campaigns ahead the 2011 elections while daring those who asked
questions about the matter to go to hell”.