Barely seventeen months after the 2019 general elections, the dust raised by the ‘bullion vans’, believed to be carrying money suspectedly meant for vote-buying, sighted on the eve of the elections in the 18 Bourdillon Street, Ikoyi, Lagos residence of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu , has refused to settle.
It reared its head again on Wednesday in Abuja, this time, with thick protests insisting that President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption fight will pave to nothing without addressing that singular “act of election corruption made possible by financial rascality”.
Some of the protesters, who stormed streets in the nation’s capital, openly demanded the arrest of Bola Tinubu, a chieftain of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) as a motivation for sustaining the Nigerians’ confidence the government already earned.
Although from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) quarters, some pictorial materials had circulated in the social media in February 2019, showing why not only Atiku Abubakar should be ‘persecuted’ for the election corruption his agent, a lawyer, was reportedly arrested perpetrating with allegedly $4 million cash on the eve of February 14 , 2019 presidential election that was abruptly shifted to February 28.
Like a drowning person that wants others to drown with him, the PDP elements including a controversial then sitting Kogi senator had let loose the pictures accompanied with comments about two bullion vans being driven into Tinubu’s residence, as many people looked on outside the premises.
In response to the controversy generated by the incident, Tinubu allegedly said the bullion vans contained money belonging to him and not for the government.
Amidst controversy generated by N90 billion election money allegedly involving Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, The DEFENDER had recently revisited the issue with a view to ascertaining the status of the allegation (true or false), knowing what the money was used for and has since published its report.
Osinbajo was exonerated by the report, as findings said the VP not only was innocent and had no hand in it but also, that he could not in anyway be linked with the election money alleged crime. It however cropped up in the course of the investigations the Tinubu’s ‘bullion vans’ question with respondents insisting that there is an iota of truth in the social media reports.
Wednesday’s protests in Abuja came as Nigerians’ expectations about President Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade got higher with a unanymous demand that addressing the ‘bullion vans’ has a way of stamping ‘indellible mark of greatness’ in the book of history in favour of the President.
They are however saying that while that is done, he should not also forget the Atiku Abubakar’s $4 million alleged vote-buying case for which his lawyer was arrested and the Osun 2018 governorship election vote-buying involving some PDP politicians and agents caught with cash on election day and arrested by the police.
