PDP To Tinubu: You’re Morally Bankrupt To Fight Corruption

BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has declared President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as unfit and morally bankrupt to speak on the fight against corruption in the country.

Against the backdrop of Tinubu’s declaration that his administration will make corruption less attractive during his tenure, the PDP said such a statement is laughable, and all sensible Nigerians are alarmed, scandalized, and embarrassed.

Addressing a media briefing at the Party’s National Secretariat in Abuja on Friday, the National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, said; “This statement by Senator Tinubu is completely sacrilegious and an assault on the sensibility of Nigerians, having regards to his records of alleged corruption and having been described variously as an embodiment of corruption in his public life.”

Ologunagba said it is in the public domain that as Governor of Lagos State, Senator Tinubu allegedly promoted and institutionalized corruption as an act of governance, adding; “It is on record that Senator Tinubu is alleged to be deeply involved in the infamous cases involving Alpha Beta Consulting Limited and Alpha Beta LLP, allegedly owned and controlled by him and through which over N100 billion belonging to Lagos State was reportedly stolen through shady tax collection deals.”

The PDP statement said; “It is also public knowledge that there have been numerous allegations and evidence of corruption and complicity by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the declaration of Senator Tinubu as the winner of the February 25, 2023, Presidential election.

“Today Nigerians and indeed the world believe that that declaration was a product of the corruption of the Process, Institutions, and Law by the APC and its Presidential candidate. It is therefore ludicrous that an individual who has been widely alleged to be an enabler and beneficiary of corruption can attempt to put himself forward to Nigerians as a champion of anti-corruption.

“Of course, corruption cannot fight corruption! If indeed Senator Tinubu is desirous of fighting corruption, the starting point should be that he publicly and personally address Nigerians on the numerous allegations of corruption, including the Alpha Beta cases and alleged improper acquisition and conversion of Lagos State Government landed properties worth billions of naira to himself, family, associates, and cronies.”

Further giving the president-elect a cold shoulder, the PDP said; “Clearly, Senator Tinubu’s pontification or claims on corruption is a further attempt to corrupt, cultivate, patronize, lure and compromise the Judiciary ahead of the commencement of the hearing of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal on Monday, May 8, 2023, and nothing more.”

However, the PDP spokesman urged the judiciary to be wary of attempts by the APC and the president-elect to patronize it in the course of discharging its constitutional duties as an impartial arbiter, particularly in the pending case before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT).

The PDP’s reaction followed a statement by Tinubu’s camp on his commissioning of some judiciary projects in Rivers State which quoted him as saying: “You don’t expect your judges to live in squalor, to operate in squalor and dispense justice in squalor. This is part of the changes that are necessary. We must fight corruption, but we must definitely look at the other side of the coin.

“If you don’t want your judges to be corrupt you got to pay attention to their welfare. You don’t want them to operate in hazardous conditions.”