Posted by By Soni Daniel, Port Harcourt on
Former Special Assistant to the Rivers State Governor on Revenue and Security, Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe, has called for the trial of President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.
Former Special Assistant to the Rivers State Governor on Revenue and Security, Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe, has called for the trial of President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.
He said on Sunday that Nigerians would not take the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission seriously until it beamed its searchlight on the allegations levelled against the President and his aides.
Sara-Igbe said that as long as the EFCC wanted the nation to believe that Abubakar was corrupt, it must also take steps to prove to Nigerians that his boss, the President, had not breached his oath of office since he mounted the saddle in 1999.
The Ijaw leader expressed disappointment that since the President was accused of owning substantial shares in Transcorp and using his aides to draw from a joint account for which Abubakar was prosecuted, the EFCC and the other agencies had turned a deaf ear to the accusations.
The Rivers Democratic Movement spokesman wondered why the EFCC and the Code of Conduct Bureau had not deemed it necessary to try Obasanjo for engaging in economic ventures while in office despite the evidence provided by a key official of the controversial Transcorp.
He said, 'Nigerians are interested in knowing from the EFCC and the CCB whether there is any truth that the President has any share in Transcorp and whether it is right for a sitting head of state to be engaged in an economic venture at the same time.
'Failure by the two bodies to probe Obasanjo and make public its findings, particularly in respect of the Transcorp deal, the N7bn library in Abeokuta and the funds realised from the privatisation of public firms, would give an impression that they are biased and serving the personal interest of one man."
He called on the National Assembly to take immediate steps to probe the two men and explain to Nigerians what happened to the Petroleum Technology Development Funds money, as to whether it was stolen as claimed or lodged in a fraudulent account.
Sara-Igbe said the probe was imperative, adding that history would not forgive Obasanjo and Abubakar if they truncated the nation's hard-earned democracy through their personal interests.
He said, 'My candid advice is for both of them to resign because they have disgraced the Presidency and exposed the sins they committed against the nation through misuse of public funds.
'By what has come out already, they are all liable and should be tried.
'The National Assembly should be fair in trying them so that Nigerians will be able to know who is telling the truth in the whole issue of corrupt enrichment."