The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has said the inclusion of former Humanitarian Affairs Minister, Betta Edu, and former NSITF Chairman, Ngozi Olejeme, who are facing corruption charges, into the All Progressives Congress (APC) 2027 Presidential Campaign Council showed that President Bola Tinubu is rehabilitating individuals carrying unresolved questions of corruption and public accountability.
ADC, in a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, noted that Edu was suspended by President Tinubu following the controversy surrounding the attempted transfer of N585 million into a private account, while Olejeme is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over allegations of financial malpractices.
The party demanded to know whether the individuals had been cleared by the government of alleged corruption charges.
“It has become a familiar pattern under this administration for investigations into financial crimes to quietly disappear only for the accused to suddenly reappear in a different official role,” ADC stated.
The party, however, said the 2027 election would be a referendum on President Tinubu’s record.
It told the president that he might assemble his old friends and political allies, including those carrying unresolved corruption questions, “but all of their collective brooms cannot sweep away the grave pains they have brought on the Nigerian people.
“They cannot campaign away the cost of living crisis or the endemic poverty that their bad policies have created.”
ADC noted that for three years, President Tinubu have told Nigerians who could barely afford food to tighten their belts, while those connected to his government continue to live in obscene opulence, feeding fat on the common wealth.
“The time for reckoning has come,” the party stated.
It pledged support to the position of its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to subsidise the production of fuel as a way of bringing down the pump price of fuel and the general cost of living in the country, if voted into office next year.
“We have observed the flurry of government-sponsored attacks on our proposal for a targeted, capped, budgeted and independently audited subsidy intervention because Nigeria cannot afford it.
“However, what we understand the APC government to be saying is that Nigeria cannot afford to protect struggling families.
“They are saying that a government that has continued to engage in monumental waste of resources cannot afford to help poor Nigerians who are merely struggling to survive,” ADC stated.
The party challenged President Tinubu to account for the cost of his “government’s wrong-headed policy that has turned state governors into wastrels and federal agents into profligates.”
