TheCable

Reno Omokri wants President Muhammadu Buhari to fire Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transport, and other officials accused corruption.

Omokri, who was special assistant on  new media to Goodluck Jonathan, former president, on new media, said this on Sunday while reacting to Buhari’s comment that officials in his administration were accused of corruption without evidence.

He said it was unfair that people accused of corruption in Jonathan’s administration were being accorded a separate treatment from what was given to those similarly accused in Buhari’s administration.

“This is exactly the same thing I’m talking about, a minister like Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, he believes and he levels charges of corruption against people from the previous regimes, notably the (former) president and first lady without evidence,” Omokri said.

“And this administration celebrates him; supporters of this administration celebrate him and the president turns around — that same Amaechi has been accused of corruption by the supreme court justices and he makes this statement.

“Mr President, I agree with you but we have to be above board; you cannot have the same set of principles for people of your administration and another set of principles for members of the previous administration.

“No no no, you can’t, Mr President. What we are seeing is an orchestrated media trial. We are seeing people arrested by EFCC and all of a sudden somebody begins to leak stories to PUNCH, to Sahara Reporters and to Premium Times and when you look at the stories, it could only be have been leaked by the EFCC, DSS or agents of the administration.

“That’s just the modus operandi. Why are you now complaining of what you are doing yourself? Look, Mr President, you said you are fighting corruption and I really applaud you but what kind of corruption are you fighting, when the gloves are off for people in the previous administration but when it is your own people the gloves are on?

“Look, President Jonathan had a minister who wasn’t guilty of corruption, Professor Barth Nnaji; he wasn’t guilty of corruption. He was accused of being guilty of conflict of interest and even upon investigation, it was found out that he had not done anything.

“But just that mere accusation, President Jonathan relieved him of his appointment as minister of power and appointed somebody else. When the story burst about Stella Oduah, when she was minister, even before any investigation was done, President Jonathan relieved her of her appointment.

“When you have people accused in your administration and you want people to note that you are an anti-corruption fighter and instead of you doing the needful, you come out and start defending them and you are asking discerning Nigerians to… where were you when people of the previous administration were being accused without evidence? I have been accused without evidence, a number of my colleagues have been accused without evidence. Why don’t you apply the same principle that Amaechi applied on others on him. This is patently unfair.”

Omokri also said it was not true that Jonathan swore never to declare his assets.

“I was reading Sonala Olumhense’s piece, ‘President Jonathan’s demons’; that was so silly what he wrote there, that Jonathan swore he would never declare his assets; that is a big lie,” he said.

“President Jonathan declared his assets. What he said was that he would not declare his assets publicly. Okay, now you have a so-called anti-corruption president, has he declared his assets publicly and it has been verified?

“There is so much hypocrisy going around. You saying the assets have not been verified by the Code of Conduct Bureau and then silly things like that. The thing there is this, if you are going to keep on changing the rules of a game when it has to do with officials of the previous administration, the whole world is watching you.

“People are reading the papers and you make exaggerated claims of corruption against people of the previous administration without any evidence and now when people makes claims of corruption against your people, you as president come out to say Nigerians should be discerning that the allegations were made without evidence. Then you stop making allegations without evidence; not that I support the supreme court justices.

“I believe that if they are going to make such weighty allegations, they should come out with more facts like date when Amaechi visited because obviously supreme court justices, I believe their houses should have CCTV. I agree that there should be some evidence but you Mr President, President Muhammadu Buhari, and that your Amaechi the minister, you should also be circumspect and stop making accusation against others without evidence.”