Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has challenged the Federal Government to come forward with the names of the 15 former Governors and 55 Nigerians whom it claimed siphoned the sum of N1.34 trillion from the national coffers between 2006 and 2013.
The governor, a well-known critic of President Muhammadu Bihari, said the president should either provide proof of the said looting or apologise to Nigerians for lying.
Fayose said this in a statement through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Mr. Lere Olayinka, in reaction to a statement by the Minister for Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed that 55 Nigerians including 15 former Governors had looted the sum of N1.34 trillion.
According to Fayose, the present administration was constantly bandying fictitious figures of stolen public funds about because it was clueless as to how to go about solving Nigeria’s problems.
Also, he queried the rationale behind leading National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olisa Metuh, to court in handcuffs, stating that even terrorists were not being led to court in handcuffs.
Fayose noted: “The reality is that the All Progressives Congress (APC) Federal Government has destroyed the economy within eight months in power and rather than look for solutions to the problems facing Nigeria, Lai Mohammed and his cohorts are branding bogus figures about stolen money just to cover up their lack of solution to the country’s economic problems.”
“Even the masterminds of Mandala and Nyanya bomb blasts, Kabiru Sokoto and Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, were not handcuffed when they were arraigned in court.
“They are turning governance to Nollywood such that when one movie is about to end, they release another one. As it appears that the $2.1 billion arms deal movie is getting to an end, Lai Mohammed introduced another movie entitled N1.34 trillion loot.
“Unfortunately for them this time around, Nigerians have become tired of watching the Federal Government movies, they now want reality. Nigerians are now aware of the scam in the $2.1 billion arms deal movie having seen that the amount those already charged to court were charged with is not more than N10 billion and $2.1 billion is over N600 billion”.