‘A man who stole Nigeria blind under Obj wants to be president. Never!’

The Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu has alerted Nigerians that a very corrupt politician is gunning to be president of the country.

He said he would never give his support to such a fellow, and called on Nigerians to do likewise, by rejecting him, even as he also called for mass action against corrupt leaders.

He made the call on Wednesday at the inauguration of Nigerian Women Against Corruption Initiative, a project of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in collaboration with the office of Wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, in Ikeja.

Although the traditional ruler would not mention names, he hinted that the said politician served under the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, and that within the first three years of that period turned many public corporation to his personal properties.

The monarch, a retired police officer also vowed to work against any corrupt individual from emerging the President of Nigeria.

The last time the monarch made such a public declaration was in the heat of the 2015 general election, when he reportedly threatened non-indigenes in the state that if they did not vote for a particular political party, they would be thrown into the lagoon.

This time around, he said, “I insist that this is not era for somebody who spent the first three years under the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo making money and turning public corporations to his own.

Read also: We’ll suggest, see if Buhari’ll agree to speak directly to Nigerians – Presidency

“He is planning to come back to be the President of this country again. I work against his ambition. I mean it and I mean it. By God’s grace, it shall not be so,” the monarch declared.

He also submitted that government by some of its actions and policies is responsible for the level of corruption prevalent in the country today.

The traditional ruler contended that some government policies such as lack of security of tenure and non-adequate mobilisation of contractors for public projects, contributes to corruption in the land.

According to him, the policy of government in allocating funds for projects “is encouraging corruption.

“You will see a situation whereby N20 billion will be earmarked for a project and N4 billion will be released and that will be the end and the contractor will proceed to bank to borrow money. That is not good for development and it should be revisited.”

On his part, the EFCC chairman, Mr Ibrahim Magu linked the socio-economic problems plaguing the country to long years of corruption, but stressed that it was now time for action.

“We cannot continue to sit and watch our country drift into intolerable poverty”, he stated.

 

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