In an exclusive interview which
was published on Sunday, August 23 2015, Shehu mocked the insinuation that
Buhari’s administration had excluded Olusegun Obasanjo from the probe due to
his affinity with him.
Garba Shehu, Muhammadu
Buhari’s special adviser on media and publicity, also disclosed that no one was
under probe yet and responded to the accusations of the alleged “selective”
probe recently posed by a prominent northern leader, Tanko Yakassai.
The official was quoted as
saying:
“Let me say that
officially, nobody is under probe even Dr. Jonathan. People should not make
mistakes about the fact that what is going on are routine investigations. These
are matters that the president has found on the table.
“So, there is nothing like
a probe. If Jonathan will be probed, you would have heard of, may be, an
administrative panel of enquiry or Judicial Panel of Enquiry. But it hasn’t
come to that. These are matters of routine engagements of due process of law
and order.
“I am talking about probe
now. As I said, President Buhari in his campaign said this government is not
going to probe into the past. We are not probing but as a responsible
government, you cannot bring to the table matters such as we are dealing with
and then, the president will wave them off.
“The office of the
president may be powerful but it is controlled, regulated by due process and
the constitution of the country. The president cannot wave away the matters
that are arising from either handing over or the routine briefings that he is
into.
“How can anybody say he was
part of the Obasanjo military regime. That’s why he’s not probing them?”
He further noted that it
was Jonathan who should have probed the previous governments.
“Let me tell you, if Obasanjo
and Yar’Adua and all of the past governments before Jonathan needed to have
been probed, why did Mr Jonathan shy away from his responsibility? Why didn’t
he probe him while he was in office? Why didn’t Mr Tanko Yakkassai ask Jonathan
to probe Yar’Adua, Babangida, Obasanjo? Why do they have to wait for Buhari to
come to do what he should have done then?
“It is common sense. So, if
he didn’t probe them, why should his people ask some other person to come and
probe them? If they felt it was desirable, as a party, PDP, if it was desirable
to probe the past administration, why didn’t they do it themselves? Why do they
have to wait for President Buhari to come?
“No, this is not a
government of probes. It is a government of due process and law and order.
President Buhari is dealing with the matters he has found on the table and he
has no power under the constitution to wave them. If somebody had stolen
Nigeria’s one billion dollars of oil, President Buhari is not authorized to
wave it off under the law. He should ask questions. There is no probe going on
now. People who are creating the spectre of probes in the country just want to
create unnecessary fear.”
Shehu added that the exact
time when the probe could start was not clear yet.
When asked about the
anticipated appointment of ministers, the official commented on the reports
saying the cabinet would be set up in September.
“He didn’t say September 1
though. The president will appoint ministers. There is no question about that.
I don’t know. The president will decide when he will appoint his Ministers. If
it is auspicious for him to appoint them in September, he will.”
It should be recalled that
President Buhari on numerous occasions reiterated his commitment to uncovering
the corrupt officials of the immediate past government. He refused, however, to
probe the administrations of Obasanjo and Yar’Adua, which was characterized by
some as a pure witch-hunting of Goodluck Jonathan and his men.
He should probe cos nobody stop him from probing obasanjo
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