Probe: Group accuses Buhari of shielding Aregbesola

The Civil Societies Coalition for Emancipation of Osun State has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of shielding Governor Rauf Aregbesola from being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission following the allegations of corruption against him.

Buhari

The chairman of the group, Mr. Sulaiman Adeniyi, said this at a press conference he addressed in Osogbo on Monday.

Listing the many ‘sins’ of the governor, Adeniyi said the governor lied about the amount of revenue which accrued to the state in the past four years. He added that the governor circumvented the due process and accountability in public finance.

According to him, the administration stopped civil servants from preparing salaries and contracted same out to a firm from Lagos which, they claimed, colluded with the governor to illegally jerk up the wage bill from N1.3 billion to N3.6 billion despite that one thirds of the civil servant voluntarily retired in 2012.

Adeniyi said the governor had committed many impeachable offences and anti -graft agencies ought to have begun investigations into the allegations against the governor.

He said some of the aides of the governor ought to have been investigated and prosecuted if the governor still enjoyed immunity from prosecution.

He said, ” President Muhammadu Buhari is shielding Aregbesola from Investigation by anti-graft bodies over criminal financial mismanagement.

“We are surprised that despite the fact that the Oloyede’s petition was sent to the EFCC and the ICPC about two months ago, these agencies of the Federal Government, under President Muhammadu Buhari, have refused to respond to this matter of urgent public interest.

“The mismanagement of the state’s resources has led to the death of many citizens from extreme poverty occasioned by the governor’s failure to pay salaries pensions and cooperative deductions thereby killing commercial activities and threatening the security of lives and property of the state.”

Speaking on the probe panel set up by the House of Assembly to investigate the petition of corruption written by Justice Folahanmi Oloyede, Adeniyi said the panel had written their report even before the commencement of investigation.

Probe: Group accuses Buhari of shielding Aregbesola