– Abiodun Tobun says members of the PDP are facing charges as they looted the nation’s treasury
– The Lagos lawmaker sad the judiciary has been performing well so far
He defended the president’s decision to fight corruption
Abiodun Tobun, a legislator representing Epe Constituency 1 of Lagos state at the state House of Assembly in an interview with naij.com speaks on the Nigerian judiciary an why members of the Peoples Democratic Party are the ones facing corruption charges.
The Lagos lawmaker said it is only reasonable that PDP members were facing charges considering that the party had spent 16 years in power while the All Progressives Congress was less than a year in power.
He said: “The people, who have ruled the country for the past 16 years were in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members, they cannot probe the members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who did not serve at the national level. When we say corruption, it has been the PDP and their admirers, it is only after this that you can probe APC members. If they are now probing those, who served in the last government, it is not that the government is after anybody or that they want to pull anybody down.
READ ALSO: Corruption: APC fires at PDP
“When we are talking of security fund, do we now start probing someone that has not worked as the National Security Adviser or who did not work closely with the NSA or shared any booty with him. Afterall, they indicted Chief Olu Falae, who is not a PDP man, but a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He was close to former President Goodluck Jonathan. Jonathan won in Lagos State in 2011 and nobody was questioned that they collected money from him or that he gave money to anybody. Till now, they have not called Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State or mentioned his name despite the fact that he is in the PDP. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was arraigned by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) by the government of former president Jonathan and he was discharged and acquitted because he was not found guilty. They did not invite Chief Edwin Clark and some other top notchers of the PDP to answer questions on corruption.
“It was not that President Buhari came up with names, it was the former national security adviser that was mentioning the people he gave money. So, they are now calling them to return the money. He could not give his enemies money or people of other political parties.
“If they feel it is one-sided, they should mention APC members that are corrupt so that they could be probed.”
On the issue of the judiciary and the complaint that it was biased, Tobun said people based their judgment based on their position.
READ ALSO: EFCC provides evidence of Tarfa’s bribery
“A problem with our people is if a judgment favours them, they would praise the judiciary, but if it is the opposite, they would condemn the judiciary. The judiciary has succeeded in telling us that they are impartial arbiters. It is the Nigerian factor. You can see what happened to the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who ran to the court that the CCT could not probe him and the Supreme Court said that he should go back there. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was probed by the CCB and he was put in the box, but he was cleared. The court is independent just like the legislature. When we passed the 2016 budget, people said that it was too fast, do we need to delay it and allow the people to suffer. We did not rest throughout December 2015 to ensure that we do a thorough job and pass the budget. The state government bought many security equipment such as gun boats, APCs, operational vehicles for the police, and this has reduced crime in the state. Our helicopter discovered the crashed Bristow Helicopter in the lagoon and saved many lives.
“The 2016 budget is the people’s budget because the government would clear all the liabilities and the contractors that are being owed, those on-going projects would be completed since they are meant to serve the people. All the contractors were told to go back to site and they are paid, the third one is that the state government would embark on new projects that would benefit the people.”
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