By Our Reporter
As reactions continue to trail the controversial letter written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to President Muhammadu Buhari urging him to forget seeking reelection in 2019, the Movement for Nigeria has revealed that the former President efforts is an attempt to escape justice for diverting Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) and other national assets to his personal property.
The group at a press briefing in Akure addressed by it's national coordinator, Olaiya Ayomide urged the Federal Government to be decisive in prosecuting the war against corruption by going after the high and mighty who take to tricks to curry public sympathy as a way of avoiding prosecution.
"...in the interest of justice, equity and fairness, consistent with the treatment meted out to other treasury looters, we demand that the Federal Government of Nigeria immediately take over all the assets that Dr. Obasanjo acquired with Nigeria's money. This include assets like Obasanjo Farms Ota, Bell University and any other property established to have been illicitly gotten with stolen funds.
"The Movement for Nigeria is concerned about the direction of the anti-corruption fight given the brazenness with which persons who should be serving time in jail are challenging the credibility of the national direction simply because the arm of the law has not stretched to them.
"Before now, we have watched with restraint when the low level and mid-level persons with cases to answer attempt to make mockery of the war on corruption by playing all manner of tricks to frustrate their being held to account".
The group explained that it was not surprised at the antics of Chief Obasanjo considering the magnitude of corruption he supervised both as the military head of state and as elected President.
" In the case of Dr. Obasanjo, we are not surprised that he has rushed to vehemently put down the government, when he had been deaf-mute in more than the previous two years; he became an overnight critic only after finding out that the anti-corruption agencies have traced several of the high-profile theft of public fund to him or his cronies. In fact, it is most worrisome that his days of appropriating our commonwealth date back to his first coming as a military leader when appropriated Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) and converted same into Obasanjo Farms Nigeria (OFN) Limited. This was to later metamorphose into his current Ota Farm. He has therefore converted Federal Government property into his personal asset in what has remained one of the world's worst case of abuse of office.
"This same farm in Ota has been used as a conduit for siphoning public funds using bogus contract for the supply of livestock at inflated prices to the Presidency during popular festivities and holidays. The practice remained in place until the present government put a stop to it as part of cost-saving measures and to judiciously use public funds. It remains to be seen if this discontinuation of the fraudulent contract is one of the grouses that the former president has against Nigerians and the basis on which he is today doing everything to punish us all by instigating instability", the group submitted.
It further lashed the former leader for his role in the corruption that has bedeviled the nation's power sector.
"The mess in the power sector is equally a direct consequence of the theft of billions of naira that Dr. Obasanjo claimed he invested in the sector. The stolen money had been the subject of several investigation by the National Assembly, including the $10.6 billion probe.
"Unfortunately, death threat and blackmail made federal lawmakers abandon the investigation in all instances. It is reassuring that one particular anti-graft agency has now made sufficient headway to file charges against Obasanjo, which has now made him to become an emergency critic just so that he can alleged witch-hunt", the group alleged.
The Movement for Nigeria also claimed that several ministers in the Obasanjo's administration have given useful information to relevant law enforcement agencies looking into the huge funds that were misappropriated under Obasanjo's watch.
"The feelers out there are that their testimonies indicted their former boss and also exposed non-public officers that colluded with him using NGOs as cover. Those indicted with Obasanjo are the ones he has now invited to form an alliance that will give them the same level of influence as an opposition party under his supposed Coalition for Nigeria.
"The Movement for Nigeria for Nigeria finds this strategy unacceptable and a threat to the meaningful implementation of the anti-corruption drive of the current government and a negation of the agreed national consensus to defeat corruption before it destroys Nigeria", the group stated.
It therefore warned the government of President Muhammadu Buhari that Nigerians will not accept any halfhearted anti-corruption fight that grants immunity to persons who should be in jail in other climes of the world.
"The proper thing is for the government to have the courage to tell citizens when it is being blackmailed into dropping corruption investigations or cases against high-profile former office holders so that the decision to accede to their demands can be subject to public debate because we know that citizens will always back the government to combat graft and not succumb to any arm-twisting tactics from someone like Obasanjo", the group submitted.
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