The Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, on Thursday described the new report by Transparency International, TI, as another vindication of his position that the All Progressives Congress, APC, the government of President Muhammadu Buhari was not fighting any corruption.
According to him, President Buhari is only hiding under anti-corruption fight to harass his perceived political foes while protecting corrupt people in his government.
In a statement issued in Ado Ekiti on Thursday, by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, the governor said: “Transparency International revealed that the perception of corruption in Nigeria worsened between 2016 and 2017, this confirms what I have said before.”
The governor also expressed concern over the reported abduction of 94 pupils of the Government Girls Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State.
He appealed to the federal government to ensure that the remaining girls are found and stop lying to Nigerians that the Boko Haram insurgency had been “completely defeated.”
Mr Fayose said it was painful that despite the earlier claim by the government that Boko Haram was ‘technically defeated’ and the latest one that the insurgency was ‘completely defeated’, 94 students could be abducted in Yobe State in just one day.
He said: “My heart goes to those 46 students that are yet to be found and I urge the federal government as well as the Yobe State government to do all within their powers to bring the students back to their families.
“Most importantly, the federal government should stop lying concerning the fight against Boko Haram insurgents because it has now become the tradition that whenever the government boasts of defeating the insurgents, greater havoc is wrecked on the country.”
On the Transparency International annual Corruption Perception Index, which ranked Nigeria 148 out of 180 countries assessed in 2017, showing deterioration in the perception of corruption in public administration in Nigeria compared to 2016, Governor Fayose said: “Transparency International has placed a question mark on the President’s claim to integrity.”
