President Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organisation has said that the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, would have been in prison if the Nigerian system of tackling corruption was working well.
The campaign team was reacting to Abubakar’s earlier reaction to a statement by Buhari when he said his fight against corruption is moving on slowly because Nigeria’s corruption-tackling system is slow.
The spokesperson for the group, Festus Keyamo, in a statement on Wednesday claimed that Atiku Abubakar is one of the greatest beneficiaries of the failed system in tackling corruption that was in place before President Muhammadu Buhari took over in 2015.
“Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to the Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar disputing the assertion by President Muhammadu Buhari that the system in Nigeria allows corruption to thrive because the system is slow in tackling corruption. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar further blamed President Muhammadu Buhari for perceived failure in addressing some instances of ‘corrupt practices’ under his watch.
“Let us remind Alhaji Atiku Abubakar that he is one of the greatest beneficiaries of the failed system in tackling corruption that was in place before President Muhammadu Buhari took over in 2015. We know he is aware of this, hence his latest diatribe against President Muhammadu Buhari amounts to nothing but disgusting grandstanding and an attempt to mock the system.”
The group claimed further that if the system was working, Abubakar would have been prosecuted and jailed for various acts of corruption after he left office as Vice President.
“We have also read with keen interest the case filed against Alhaji Atiku Abubakar by some public-spirited Nigerians alleging that he never paid his Personal Income Taxes as at when due, yet he wants to ‘get Nigeria working again’.
“In this regard, we are also challenging Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to publicly display his Personal Income Tax receipts for the three years preceding 2018 to show that he did not just run to FIRS in 2018 to pay his backlog of Personal Income Taxes.”
The group lauded President Buhari’s efforts in tackling corruption which according to them is headlong and has led to the conviction of the President’s own party men and ex-Governors who served under PDP.
“703 persons and institutions have been convicted by the EFCC under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari since 2015. The biggest recoveries of stolen public funds in the history of Nigeria are being carried out by President Muhammadu Buhari. These recoveries were made from principally his party men who now wish to lead Nigeria with him.”
