Osinbajo holds brief for APC members, says EFCC not after them because no cases against them

Citing an example of the arms scandal, Osinbajo said those responsible for the scam were those holding public offices at the time, adding that members of the ruling APC were not in office at the time of the crime, hence the reason Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), are not after them.

This is as he described allegations in some quarters that the anti-corruption war of the present administration is selective as absurd and without foundation or basis.

According to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, the Vice-President spoke with journalists after taking part in the 27th Ordinary Session of the African Union which ended in Kigali, Rwanda on Monday.

“I think it (the allegation) is entirely absurd. I think that view is absurd and without foundation or basis whatsoever.

“We look at corruption from all possible facets. If you look at, for example, corruption in the military, from military procurement, obviously the only individuals responsible for that could be persons who had held office within the period in question and that has been done and clearly the opposition was not in the office at that time.

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“Those who were in the office were not necessarily opposition individuals. These were service chiefs and other personnel who had served for a while.

“The other issues for example is the fraud and the corruption that is associated with large sums of money given out by the past National Security Adviser (NSA), which went to several political figures and again these were huge sums of money, over $2bn and the sheer size and the enormity of what we are talking about, must not be diminished in any way or trivialised in anyway by any suggestion that it is partisan. How? In what way?

“I think those who make that suggestion obviously want to trivialise a very important programme of the government, a very important fight against corruption and also the strong effort to recover huge sums of money that have been stolen from Nigeria.”

The vice president may have been reacting to recent questions on why the name of the Interior Minister, Abdulrahman Dambazau was not among those for further probe in the corruption cases arising from military procurement.

Recall also, that several allegations have continued to trail many of President Buhari’s ministers. And some Nigerians are also asking if corruption is limited to arms deal fund only.

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