Corrupt politicians behind killings, says Presidency

*Reinvigorated war against corruption’ll be fought to the letter – Shehu

“The problem is that the competition of power in the country has become fiercer and fiercer because the stake is very high. I will give you one example. The president has unleashed on the country the war against corruption, the type that had never been seen before. Assets are being recovered from powerful people.  The president is lucky, he has a judiciary which is transforming itself, which is on the same page with president in fighting corruption. As I speak to you now, you know that two former state governors are in jail.”

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, has attributed the increased spate of killings across the country to clandestine activities of corrupt politicians, restating the avowed determination of President Muhammadu Buhari not be distracted from the war against treasury looters.

Shehu stated this when he visited the national secretariat of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday, saying the reinvigorated war against corruption would be fought to the letter.

He alleged a high level conspiracy against President Buhari and people of Nigeria by the looters, pointing out that Nigerians are not unaware of what is going on.

According to him the resolve of the judiciary to be on the same page with Buhari on the fight to recover stolen assets has sent shivers across the landscape, adding the fierce struggle for political control has also not helped matter.

“The problem is that the competition of power in the country has become fiercer and fiercer because the stake is very high. I will give you one example. The president has unleashed on the country the war against corruption, the type that had never been seen before. Assets are being recovered from powerful people.

“The president is lucky, he has a judiciary which is transforming itself, which is on the same page with president in fighting corruption. As I speak to you now, you know that two former state governors are in jail.

“A lot of people thought this war against corruption is a joke, and that the back and forth that has characterised this over time will continue. One of the two cases we are talking about was determined after 11 years of back and forth with lawyers and judges, kicking the balls from this hut to that hut.

“Now, they have descended on the country a new era and a new aura that is ensuring the conclusion of these cases.”

The presidential spokesman said much of the harsh “attacks against the president are coming from people who had become used to lifestyle they can no longer sustain.

“As we have on record, there were people in this country because they were influential; they had permanent suites attached to them in major hotels in Abuja. They will just come, take key and live lavishly at public expenses.

“When they leave, they were accompanied by bags of Ghana-must-go. The president has blocked access to national resources to lazy people. Therefore, he is being fought, not because people are not happy.”

He said the government has done a lot in provision of infrastructure, adding that the electricity distribution companies, DISCOS, are even capable of taking up over 2000 megawatts of power pumped into the system by the administration.

“This is a government that is building long delayed infrastructures. This country will become the country of railways; there is no state in the country where a minimum of two federal roads are not either to be constructed or being reconstructed.

“We have more power (electricity) than can be consumed, 2000 megawatts of the electricity, nobody is taking and by the year’s end, we are going to hit 10,000 megawatts from 2,600 megawatts.

“And so, the burden by government is how do we sell this power? How do we take it to Nigerians who need it? So, these things are building up and I assure you that they won’t give up. They will continue to fight the president but the happiness we have is that ordinary Nigerians understand the conspiracy against them and they are with the president,” he said.

On the 2019 general election, Shehu said the president will upset the score card again by making inroads into the South East and South geopolitical zones.