Although the tension-soaked governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress in Lagos State had come and gone, with Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu emerging as the winner, a civil society group, the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, has urged the leadership of the ruling party to investigate the allegations leveled against its gubernatorial candidate in the state by the incumbent Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.
CACOL said that the APC leadership must probe and come clean about the allegations leveled by Governor Ambode against Sanwo-Olu in the run-up to last week primary election in which the incumbent lost woefully to the ruling party’s new governorship candidate in the 2019 general elections.
The group it had become imperative for the APC leadership, especially in Lagos State, to come clean about the true position of things concerning the weighty moral and health accusations levelled against Sanwo-Olu by the Lagos State Governor, Ambode.
Speaking exclusively with our correspondent at the weekend, the CACOL Executive Chairman, Mr. Debo Adeniran, said, “We would note that since penultimate Sunday’s World Press Conference by the incumbent Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, where in a ‘Question and Answer Session’ the governor made allusions to the mental health condition of his opponent, Mr. Jide Sanwo-Olu and further alleged that the said opponent was once arrested and frisked in the United States of America (USA) for spending and being in possession of counterfeited American Dollars, many Nigerians have understandably joined in the conversation by insisting that APC as a political party must, as a matter of responsibility and clear conscience, wade in to provide full information on the candidate, both on the question of his true state of mental health and his moral propriety and other useful areas of concern, like finance, education.
“CACOL as an organisation that prides itself on holding a moral mirror to any would-be public officer within the state and country at large, cannot but agree with such calls by Nigerians.
“This is because, democracy as a concept, is like a learning curve. And Nigerians have experienced so many unanticipated shocks from their leaders, who have been largely hampered by their health concerns while in office; while many have later been found to lack the integrity expected by revelations concerning their life’s claims, only after assuming office. This may be in education, fiscal trustworthiness. And since we all agree that democracy is a means to certain beneficial goals to the people and the society, we insist that anybody that would aspire to a lofty and critical office like that of Lagos State governorship must not only be of a sound moral standing, his health condition is also key in performance expectation so as not to be a figure head in government.”
Speaking further, Adeniran added, “Though, it may seem that the incumbent governor was lost in a fit of anger to drop this weighty allegations against his opponent, CACOL as an impartial but responsible anti-corruption organisation, would advise that the leadership of APC, as the ruling party in Lagos State and the country at large, cannot afford to play the ostrich over this matter of utmost importance to the electorate and generality of Nigerians.”
Meanwhile, the anti-graft group has vowed to tackle corruption at the grassroots level.
Adeniran also said that in an effort to prevent corruption at the grassroots level, the organisation would embark on the sensitisation of people at the grassroots on the need to eschew corruption in order to contain the scourge.
While noting that corrupt practices, especially money laundering, had become predominant among the elite, Adeniran said CACOL would enlighten the illiterates in order to discourage them from aiding and abetting the crime.
He described the elite as major culprits in corruption, with the illiterates as supportive agents.
The CACOL chairman said the sensitisation would enable the people at the grassroots to act as whistle blowers to expose any elite, who must have laundered money.
Adeniran said, “Basically, we are introducing the grassroots engagement of our organisation to sensitise the illiterates on the need to eschew corruption. It is the elite that are the major culprits in corruption; the illiterates are just only supportive. So, we want to remove their support base.
“If they are better enlightened, the issue will gradually be addressed. When the elites launder money, they give it to the grassroots people for keep, or ask them to take the monies to bank for them. But through this effort, they will turn whistle blowers in order to expose these corrupt elites and subsequently the elites will find it difficult to further commit such financial crime.”
On whether the people at the grassroots will key into the idea or not, Adeniran said, “We will try our best. We are going to embark on mass education of the grassroots, train them on how to identify corruption and report it.
