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Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL)
The Humanity Centre: 610, Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway,
Ijaye Bus stop, Ijaye-Ojokoro.
P.O. Box 1592, Agege, Lagos.
Tel: 01-4736534, 08023226276, 08037194969
E-mail: cacolc@yahoo.com, dadnig@yahoo.com
Name, Nail, Shame and Shun Corrupt Leaders Anywhere,
Everywhere
21 March, 2009
PRESS RELEASE
OBASANJO HAS CORRUPTION CASES TO ANSWER
The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) views
the recent attempt by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo
to self-launder his image by exonerating himself of
corruption allegations in a B.B.C interview as a
shameless display of arrogant lack of conscience.
CACOL insists that the ex-president must face trial
for the endemic corruption that the supervised
during his eight years of nightmarish civilian
dictatorship.
Nigerians demand to know why they have continued to
grope in nation-wide darkness and industrial
collapse due to power failures even though Obasanjo
claimed to have spent almost 14 billion dollars on
the power sector. Nigerians demand to know why
Nigerians roads are the highest traffic killers in
the world even though Obasanjo allocated over 300
billion naira for road rehabilitation in 2001 alone
not to talk of several other billions voted for
roads that were never constructed.
Nigerians demand to know why the ex-President
authorized the illegal release of billions of naira
from the NNPC, PTDF and other government parastatals
to fund his ill-fated third term agenda. Nigerians
demand to know why our refineries have continued to
remain redundant even though ex-president released
about 120 million dollars for their maintenance in
the year 2000. Nigerians demand to know the extent
of the president’s culpability in the Willbros,
Siemens and the Haliburton bribery scandals.
Nigerians demand to know the source of Obasanjo’s
purchase of 200 million shares in Transcorp.
Nigerians would like to know how a man said to have
just about twenty thousand naira in his account by
1999 has come to own a University, several
multi-million naira landed properties, companies,
state-of-the-art automobiles and many other choice
properties all over the world by the time he left
office in 2007. Where did Obasanjo get the money to
purchase thousands of hectares of land in Badagry,
Ogun State, Oyo State, and other States in the
country? At the level of CACOL, we are still
investigating some of his properties in neighbouring
Republic of Benin, other parts of Africa, Europe,
America and other parts of the world.
Anyway, it is gratifying to note that Obasanjo
conceded in that interview that officials in his
government were corrupt and that he was ready to
face trial if found culpable on corruption charges.
However we find it both laughable and preposterous
the ex-president’s claim that he had been cleared by
anti-corruption agencies in the country. If that is
true, then it must have been a silent clearance by
the EFCC and ICPC in secret correspondence between
them. And if that is the case, we accuse the two
anti-corruption bodies of being accomplice after the
fact of massive and destructive corruption that is
threatening continued existence of Nigeria as a
national entity. We submitted petitions against
Obasanjo to both EFCC and ICPC in the full glare of
the Nigerian public. So, if Obasanjo’s claim is true
by any possibility then any clearance of such
serious allegations must be a public document.
To this extent we challenge the EFCC and ICPC to
either refute Obasanjo’s claim or make public their
clearance and justify such in a comprehensive report
to the Nigerian public who are the worst victims of
the endemic corruption of the ruling elite.
Finally, we wish to use this medium to inform the
EFCC and ICPC that the ultimatum we gave concerning
the Obasanjo case has expired. We will hit the
streets in massive protests nation-wide against both
agencies any moment shirking their responsibility
and shielding the former President.
Debo Adeniran
Chairman, CACOL
08037194969
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