The President Muhammadu Buhari administration has been called upon to bring in people like former anti-corruption czar, Nuhu Ribadu, to help it pursue its agenda of probity, fight corruption and ensure that those who feast on the common wealth are made to return it.
President of the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Coalition for Peace and Mobilisation (NACOPEM), Comrade Ahmed Saleh made the call on Tuesday in Abuja.
Speaking at the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the association, Comrade Saleh also voiced the readiness of the group to reach out to some important members of the APC, who either left the party in anger or were misled into leaving in the run up to the 2015 general elections.
Mr. Ribadu was one of such stalwarts of the APC who dumped the party in order to pick the governorship ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. He came third in the 2015 Adamawa State governorship election behind the APC and Social Democratic Party, SDP.
The pioneer chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, whose visit to the pioneer chairman of the APC, Chief Bisi Akande at his Ila-Orangun country home in Osun State last December sparked defection rumours, has gone into political oblivion with his party, PDP, enmeshed in leadership crisis even as many of its prominent members are standing trial for alleged corruption.
The NACOPEM, however, insisted that “We need the likes of Nuhu Ribadu and many others to rejoin the party and support this government to fight corruption and help Mr President address the multifaceted problems we have been facing since independence”.
The group said as part of its assigned mandate, as members of the peace and mobilisation of the APC, its investigations revealed that what the government needs at this critical point in time to fight corruption is for President Buhari to call on credible Nigerians, who it said possess the know-how, intelligence, ability and the strategy to fight corruption.
“I mention people like Ribadu because I remember when $15 million was brought to him in an attempt to bribe him. How many people can resist such temptation at this present day? Today, former Governor James Ibori is in jail partly due to his efforts”, NACOPEM asserted.
Saleh also decried the current trend of politicizing the anti-corruption war of the Buhari administration by the opposition, saying “whenever they arrest a particular person for allegations of corruption, they begin to complain and politicise the issue. This, to me, is unnecessary and uncalled for”.
