President
Muhammadu Buhari may have given the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) the nod to probe ex-president, Goodluck Jonathan.
According
to The Punch, President Buhari’s special assistant on media and publicity, Femi
Adesina, in a chat on Friday, March 11, noted that there was no
secret agreement between the present and past presidents to exempt Jonathan
from the list of corrupt people to be probed by this administration.
“The
President does not teleguide the EFCC in any way,” Adesina said while
answering questions on whether the EFCC would seek the consent of President
Buhari before probing Jonathan.
Speaking
in the same vein, Garba Shehu, the senior special assistant to the president on
media and publicity, told The Punch that, “there is no secret pact between
President Buhari and any past President.
“If
you know or understand him, President Buhari is not the kind of person who will
go into secret agreements. He is open about everything he does.
“The
war against corruption is open-ended. Nobody knows how it will end.”
Shehu
explained further that the war against corruption in the country is not a witch
hunt.
He
said: “But the President is not on a witch hunt. If you remember his
acceptance speech after being announced as the winner of the 2015 general
elections, he said without any equivocation that he would not victimise or
subject anyone to witch hunt.
“One
thing very clear from the way he has carried on with the war against corruption
is that past officials of government have a window to return looted funds to
avoid investigation and trials which may be drawn out and sometimes inimical to
the exercise.
“People
can help themselves and help the country without being noisy about anything.
“The
President is aware that he is under watch, locally and internationally, in his
handling of the war against corruption.
“Whatever
international support he will get will depend on how open and effective his
government is in carrying out the anti-graft war.
“To
that extent, the war against corruption knows neither friend nor foe.”
The
body language of the anti-graft agency had initially suggested that they may be
reluctant to bring in ex-president for questioning over multi-billion dollar
corruption allegations, especially the $2.1billion arms deal.
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