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Erstwhile Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation in the second Republic, Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN), has accused governors of corruption calling them “the biggest thieves.”
Oloye Akinjide while speaking in an interview on Galaxy Television on Sunday, said states are broke because governors were stealing money.
According to the legal icon, states are not able to pay salaries because “they are stealing. The biggest thieves are the governors.”
He said states get allocations that run into billions of naira but in the end, the money is taken away.
In his words, the critical things in leadership are honesty and integrity but most of those who find themselves in government lack honour.
Asked what he knows about the controversial Third Term bid of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Akinjide said that even an ex-Secretary of State in the United States acknowledged in his book that Obasanjo did tell them about it.
According to him, the former United States Secretary of State devoted many pages of his book to their encounter with Obasanjo on his Third Term ambition, saying that if the former president denied that he ever wanted and bidded for tenure elongation, “it is left for you and I to decide whether to believe him or not.”
Akinjide said there was nothing wrong with the emergence of Senators Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu as Senate President and Deputy Sen ate President respectively, as they were duly elected.
On the stand of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that the election of Saraki and Reps Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, was an act of treachery, Akinjide accused the party of unnecessary sentiment, saying there’s a difference between party politics and governance.
“The sentiment on treachery is nonsense,” he said, adding that the National Assembly operates with rules, which was followed in the election of Saraki, Dogara and Ekweremadu.
Akinjide advised President Muhammadu Buhari to implement the report of the National Conference, saying that government is a continuum, while supporting the creation of new states, as recommended by the National Conference, making special case for Ibadan state.
Source: The Sun