THE Presidency has dismissed Rotimi Fashakin’s allegation that President Goodluck Jonathan purchased a private jet for Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), as a reward for his support over 2011 presidential election, describing such unfounded allegation as “a product of the mind of an unimaginative mind.”
Reacting to the claim made in a statement by the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) spokesman, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, on Sunday said the statement was a rambling which served no purpose.
According to him, “the statement by Rotimi Fashakin of the CPC is a thoroughly incoherent and stream of consciousness rambling that serves no purpose other than that it fits into a pattern of perpetual heckling and wolf crying by a defeated, unimaginative group that hides under the guise of being an opposition.
“More discerning persons know the truth: that the CPC and its Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) conspirators will say anything, no matter how unreasonable, just so they can be seen to be saying something in the name of politics.”
Abati noted that the Jonathan-led administration remained resolutely committed to the pursuit of the transformation agenda and would not be distracted or discouraged by “those, who in hustling for relevance, have chosen to place their selfish interests before and above the national interest.”
The CPC national publicity secretary had claimed that following the spontaneous violent reaction in parts of the North to the outcome of the 2011 presidential election, which was won by President Jonathan, Pastor Oritsejafor had demanded the arrest of General Muhammadu Buhari.
“As a fitting reward for that execrable service and many others, Pastor Oritsejafor was rewarded on November 10, 2012 with the gift of a Bombardier private jet, at a ceremony in which the president was physically present,” CPC had said.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the statement from the ACN, which celebrated the categorisation of Nigeria as corrupt by the United States, is misplaced.
PDP, in a statement signed by Chief Olisa Metuh, its national publicity secretary, in Abuja, on Sunday, wondered why the ACN was “gallivanting” and supposing that only the PDP was corrupt and the opposition saints.
“The phenomenon of corruption predates the 14 years of the PDP, but our party has taken bold steps to tackle it. Whether the ACN agrees or not, the establishment of the EFCC, ICPC and the enactment of the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act are some of the firm measures in fight against corruption.
“The world may know of corrupt cases in Nigeria because the PDP, as the ruling party, has chosen not to condone corruption like the opposition. We have shown enough dispassion in the crusade that even some of our members found wanting had to face the full weight of the law.
“Winning the war on corruption is, therefore, a matter for all Nigerians to do his or her own beat. A deeper insight reveals, no doubt, that all corrupt persons in the civil and public services are not members of the PDP, neither are all Nigerians in their private businesses members of PDP.
“Even though it is easy to argue that as leaders, all bucks stops on our table, it is, at the same time, needful to appreciate that all Nigerians must pull through his or her own beat. The PDP shall continue the fight until the chaff of corruption is winnowed into the fire,” Metuh said.
The statement further said the ACN was the least that should point an accusing finger, “because its leader is one of the most corrupt Nigerians of the living memory.”
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