*Buhari’s Shocking Confession As An Accessory To Fraud And Looting Of Public Funds By Governors And Local Govt Chairmen On His Tv Interview* [ Dr. Ope Banwo’s review of part of Mr. President Buhari’s AriseTV Interview of June 10th, 2021]
Is it just me, or did we all just watch President Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, openly, and directly, CONFESS to being an accessory to the crime of fraud and conspiracy to divert public funds by governors and local govt chairmen, on his AriseTV Interview of June 10th, 2021?
I hope we all watched the Arise Interview of our president yesterday. If you did, you must have noticed that during the interview, President Buhari told Nigerians, while responding to a question on Corruption that: *‘The problem is -the local government are just virtually being killed. And this is not good for this country, because those who became the local government chairmen are being compromised. If your local government is say, entitled or supposed to receive N300m, a letter is being prepared for you that you have received N300m, and [then] you are given N100m!”* [this is a direct transcript from the video of the ARISETV interview]
WHAT?!!! Here we have the president of a country directly accusing Governors and local govt chairmen of being THIEVES AND EMBEZZLERS OF PUBLIC FUNDS as well as CONSPIRATORS IN SHARING PUBLIC ALLOCATIONS on globally televised TV Interview Program!
Even worse, by directly giving specific details of the crime, it appears that the President has ADMITTED he was aware of this ONGOING criminal act of sharing public funds, knew who the perpetrators are, BUT HAS SO FAR ALLOWED THEM TO ESCAPE JUSTICE since it’s in his power to ‘name and shame’ the ones with immunity’ and prosecute all those who do not have immunity for such criminal actions and those who are no longer governors. He has also presumably received some of them in his office as president of Nigeria since they all have meetings at least once a month. YET, he has NEVER had any of the local govt chairmen or governors accused or arrested for this dastardly act of looting our commonwealth in his 6 years in office.
Since we do not expect our President to openly engage in baseless rumor-mongering, we must assume he has the facts and figures of some of the governors and local govt chairmen engaged in this unfortunate conspiracy (Afterall he quoted the figures ) before disclosing the conspiracy between then to share, and actually sharing, public funds, on national TV.
Yet President Buhari has done nothing to protect Nigerians from these criminals, thereby making him a direct accessory after the fact to these heinous crimes by public servants
In my mind and sincere understanding of the law, as it applies to accessories after the fact, it appears that Mr. President has confessed to most of the elements of the offense of Accessory After the Fact under Section10 of Nigerian Criminal Code which says: “Accessories after the fact: A person who receives or assists another who is, to his knowledge, guilty of an offense, in order to enable him to escape punishment, is said to become an accessory after the fact to the offense.”
You didn’t even need to be a lawyer to know the president by his shocking comment has basically admitted to being an ACCESSORY AFTER THE FACT to the crime of public looting or sharing of public finds by the Governors and Local Government Chairmen. The video of the interview published on youtube speaks for itself. The president became aware of fraud and enabled the people to escape punishment by doing nothing when he is the CHIEF EXECUTIVE sworn to uphold the law.
Yet, over 24 hours after the president made that stunning confession in public, I am stunned that nobody is screaming for Mr. President to resign, or at least hold him accountable for being part of the corruption we elected him to fight.
More amazingly, I am yet to see the governor’s forum, or any governor or local govt, take exceptions to those damning words or demand Mr. president to name the specific governors involved in this apparently ongoing criminal conspiracy. Silence in the face of very public accusation is a strong indication of guilt.
So, I say shame on all our governors and local govt chairmen who kept quiet as the national president basically accused them of being criminals.
We elected Buhari to be the nemesis of corruption in Nigeria in 2015 and again in 2019. So, I find it heartbreaking and tragic that the same Mr. Anti-Corruption can look Nigerians in the face and tell them he was aware that governors and Local govt chairmen have been illegally sharing our commonwealth. yet he did NOTHING about it.
The saddest part of it all is that top Nigerians like our president, and the team of Media and Legal advisers, have condoned criminality so long they are not even aware of what a crime is anymore. Otherwise, how could Mr. President’s Media handlers, his attorneys which included some of the most respected SANs in our nation, or the Presidency, have allowed Mr. President to implicate himself in public this way? Did they not review the obviously pre-recorded video before allowing it to air? or worse, is there a conspiracy even within the Presidency to undermine President Buhari by his own inner men? It’s sad but these unfortunate questions must now be asked by well-meaning Nigerians.
What a shame of a nation! We must hold our president accountable or we become willing participants in the ruination of our dear country.
So what do we do?
1. We demand the national assembly immediately start impeachment proceedings
2. We demand Mr president to name and shame all the governors and names of local govt chairman involved in this shameful conspiracy of looting
3. Nigerians should hold their local govt chairmen responsible by demanding explanations
4. Nigerians should sign a petition to the global community we will create on change.org today to demand the resignation of President Buhari within next 30 days or impeachment proceeding to be started by our elected officers
5. Nigerians should call and register their dissatisfaction with their local govt chairmen who allowed themselves to become stooges of governors
6. We call on statehouses to pass resolutions for structural reforms in the nation
