Presidency Gives Stern Warning To Corrupt Politicians Joining APC

The Presidency has given stern warning to corrupt politicians defecting to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in a bid to get political shielding from the ongoing corruption fight.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration fight against corruption would not be based on party affiliation.
The Punch reports that the special adviser to the President on media and publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, in an interview on Tuesday, January 12, disclosed that any politician accused of corruption from other political parties would still be investigated and prosecuted after joining the APC. 

Adesina made the disclosure when he was asked if defection from the opposition party would stop those already indicted in the $2.1 billion arms probe. He insisted that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration fight against corruption would not be based on party affiliation.
The presidential spokesman who said the President would not encourage any cover-up, said: “It is not in the nature of this administration to cover anyone who has questions to answer on corruption, irrespective of party affiliation.”
Adesina also explained that the release of a chieftain of the APC and a former military governor of Kaduna state, Jafaru Isa, by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) had nothing to do with his relationship with President Buhari.
He said Isa who was apprehended by the anti-graft agency was said to have been released after he returned N100 million from the N170 million he allegedly collected from Sambo Dasuki.
Adesina said: “The EFCC is in a better position to tell you why Jafaru Isa was released. But it definitely has nothing to do with his relationship with the President. If that were the case, then he would not have been picked in the first place.”
The presidency stance may not be unconnected with the recent defection of Chief Jim Nwobodo, a former Minister of Sports who was reported to be one of the beneficiaries of the money shared by a former Minister of State for Finance, Bashir Yuguda.

Nwobodo who was the chairman of the contact committee of the PDP presidential campaign for the South-East reportedly dumped the PDP for the APC on Friday.
The former minister accepted collecting the sum of N100 million from PDP’s national chairman, Dr. Adamu Mu’azu to execute the assignment given to his committee.
In a related development, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, chairman of the EFCC who spoke with some online publishers in Lagos, on Monday, said the anti-graft agency had not invited the immediate past president Goodluck Jonathan for questioningbecause no document had linked him to the distribution of the $2.1 billion arms procurement fund aside the purpose it was earmarked for.
Magu explained that Jonathan could not be arrested as anticipated by some persons because no document had been traced to him giving authorization for the sharing of the money other than the purpose of arms procurement.
He said the people so far quizzed by the EFCC in connection with the arms fund are those that either collected or redistributed the money for reasons other than arms procurement.
“All approvals by former President Jonathan did not mention that it was for political purposes. All the memos approved by him were for the purchase of arms,” Magu said.