The Centre for Anti-Corruption
and Open Leadership, CACOL, has called on former First Lady, Patience Jonathan
to come clean on the issue of her alleged corrupt enrichment.
CACOL made the call while
lambasting a group of Niger Delta women who staged a solidarity march for
Patience in Port-Harcourt yesterday.
The march involved hundreds of
women in the state, who marched to the Rivers State Government house and was
led by one Mrs Eunice Igwe over what they referred to as constant harassment of
the former first lady.
In a press release signed by CACOL’s Executive Chairman, Debo Adeniran, the group
insisted that the former First Lady must tell Nigerians and the entire world
how she gathered her wealth.
CACOL said, “We as a centre that
is totally opposed to corruption at any level of government and by any
government official, no matter how highly placed or influential have always
challenged the former first lady to come clean on the issue of her alleged
corrupt enrichment.
“She owes Nigerians and the
entire civilized world an explanation on:How she was able to build a hotel in
Yenogoa, worth over N10b; how she earned over $20m and several other huge sums
of money found in different bank accounts linked to her. Her explanation is
necessary because wecan recall that she was just a career civil servant under
theBayelsa state government while her husband held sway as the nation’s
President.
“CACOL’s stand remains that for
Corruption to be finally uprooted from our national life, no effort must be
spared in the bid to recoup stolen wealth that has left most Nigerians
pauperized and frustrated, no matter whose ox is gored. It is for this reason
we are not only decrying a situation whereby those who siphoned our
commonwealth directly or through proxy would arrange a rented crowd or
blackmail the nation by calling on the Presidency and the International
community to intervene or leash the EFCC from carrying the fight against
corruption to its logical conclusion.
“The CACOL boss further stated:
“Rather than appealing to sheer emotion and undue sentiment that gives the
impression that since over 70% of the nation’s revenue comes from oil-most of
which is obviously still derivable from the Niger Delta area- any indigene of
the regionshould be free to steal in power, the correct approach should be to
chastise their own for not living up to integrity standards by doing
incalculable damage to the nation’s economy through entrenchment of a looting
culture.
“The women solidarity marchers
should also endeavor to cite other former first ladies involved in verifiable
cases of corruption which the anti-graft agencies have treated as sacred cows,
to prove their allegation of witch-hunting against Mrs Jonathan. Only by so
doing would they prove to the entire world that they deserve being given any
serious attention.”
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