Oshiomhole begs Nigerians not to discourage Buhari from probing Jonathan’s men

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has pleaded with Nigerians not to dissuade President Muhammadu Buhari from beaming his anti-corruption searchlight on officials of the immediate past administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
This was as he insisted that the cries of selective prosecution of Buhari’s fight against corruption was uncalled for, as Jonathan’s men were fully in charge of managing the Nigerian economy while instances of corrupt practices were rife.
The Gov
ernor spoke on Friday night, during an event organized by the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE, in honour of two media icons, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, and Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, in Abuja.
According to him, “They are serving a President who appreciates that these problems have to be confronted head-on. The President who boldly told the world that the issue of corruption, if it is not killed, it will kill us. And since we don’t want to die, we have to kill corruption.
“But the forces behind corruption are powerful, some are feasible and some are not feasible. They are men and women of means. Many are even billionaires in dollars and euros.
“Now where are the forces that will queue behind the president to confront the drivers of corruption. As you can see, people are already asking questions about due process, people are asking questions about selective prosecution and so on.
“And it will be the job of Shehu and Femi to remind people that if you managed a house for 16 years and members of the community believed that the house has not been properly managed and that the reason for the mismanagement is that some people willfully … including resorting to corrupt practices, you can only deal with those in that house, the people who had responsibility for managing the house.
“So when you select those people and deal with them, of course it is selective. You can only select from among those who are involved with crime. Editors will help to take this to our people,” he stated.
Wondering why those presently crying fowl kept silent when many wrongdoings were carried out under Jonathan, he said: “When my helicopter was stopped when going to Ekiti State, as a governor with immunity, I was stopped by a low-level military officer from flying to Ekiti because my purpose was to campaign. I didn’t quite hear pastors protesting on my behalf.
“When Rotimi Amaechi was detained by a Commissioner of Police in Rivers State and they moved tankers to Government House, heaven didn’t fall,” he stated.
Stressing that everything must be done now to guide the current democracy, he noted that it is not possible to fight war against corruption without having casualties.
“It is only in Nigeria, that for 16 years a particular political party was in power, they were fighting corruption war but there were no casualties. It is like the Nigerian Police that sees criminal and shoot to the air.”
He said the good news is that Nigeria now has a President with enormous political will, who is determined to get the job done.
“Whether in the course of doing it, he will make a mistake that he will become too careful as to leave the job undone. For all of us who agree, lamentations won’t be our portion forever. It is time to get organized and deal with these issues,” he added.
Oshiomhole called on the NGE to assist the two presidential spokesmen as they have a huge and challenging task ahead of them in their job of speaking for the President, even as he prayed God to give them the desired wisdom to succeed in their assignments.