JUST IN; Buhari doesn’t associate with treasury looters – Presidency
Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari, Femi Adesina, has distanced his principal from any involvement in corrupt dealings, saying anyone with financial misappropriation record can never be his friend irrespective of his office or background.
Adesina made this known in a statement posted on his official Facebook page on Thursday.
He said contrary to insinuations in some quarters, his principal doesn’t associate with treasury looters and even hates them with passion.
In the statement entitled, ‘PMB AND THE NDDC’, Adesina explained how Buhari, his principal, achieved the long-overdue audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) after various claims of corruption were reported to be going on in the agency.
He said, “Well, it is meant to be an interventionist agency, but one thing is crystal clear. Despite hundreds of billions of naira invested over 20 years, the true intervention has been in the pockets of some select people, rather than on the region, and the lives of the people in general.
“There’s one thing President Muhammadu Buhari hates with a passion. Grand larceny. Expropriation and purloining. Once it’s confirmed that you are filching from the public purse, you can never be his friend, no matter who you are,” he declared.
“So he had to bring to a halt the gravy train that the NDDC had become over the years. And no stampede, no rout or panic. The house cleaning must be done and done well. Thoroughly,” he stressed.
Adesina explained that despite the apparent corruption games in the commission, some powerful forces criticised President Buhari’s directive for its audit, but the President still went ahead to implement the needed clean up of the commission in line with rule of law.
He stressed that: “In the Niger Delta, you see plenty of signboards, but little or no projects. In other words, people collect contracts, erect signboards announcing the project, but the job never gets done. And the contractors get paid.
“What to do? A forensic audit was necessary. Some powerful forces mounted robust resistance, but they didn’t reckon with the iron will of the President. The audit was done, and report submitted.”
