AC berates Yar’Adua on refusal to probe Obasanjo

Adewale Ajayi, Lagos - 07.01.2008

Action Congress has condenmed President Umaru Yar’Adua’s administration over its decision not to probe former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.

The party stated that Yar’Adua’s administration goofed by saying categorically that it would not probe former President Obasanjo’s eight years of waste and maladministration.

AC in statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, stated that the statement was in bad taste, since several former governors are currently facing trial over their actions while in office.

AC explained that such statement by Yar’Adua must have been made without any serious consideration since it implied that certain categories of people were either above the laws of the land or can be exempted from probe as a payback for the political patronage they dispensed while in office.

“Such patronage includes the installation of a puppet, successor government,” the party stated. AC said the statement also meant that the National Assembly, which is imbued with oversight functions, can then close shop and send its members home, since some people have been elevated to a status where their actions in government cannot be investigated.

“It means that if the National Assembly, in performing its oversight functions, stumbles on fraud in any area or sector, it should simply shut up!” the party added.

The party explained that many actions of the Obasanjo administration called for a comprehensive probe, irrespective of what the Yar’Adua government thinks.

“A government that pumped over N300 billion into road rehabilitation and construction, even when the same roads are not motorable or are now death traps, definitely deserves to be investigated,” the party said.