Fayose dares Lai Mohammed to name the 15 former governors who ‘stole’ N1.34trn

Ayodele Fayose, governor of Ekiti state, on Wednesday accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of “turning governance to Nollywood”.

Fayose alleged that close to one year after it won the presidential election, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government was still operating as if it was campaigning for votes.

He accused the current administration of concocting lies to distract Nigerians from the “destruction of the economy”, challenging Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, to name the 15 ex-governors and 55 Nigerians that he claimed stole N1.34 trillion between 2006 and 2013 or “apologise to Nigerians for lying”.

“The reality is that the All Progressives Congress (APC) federal government has destroyed the economy within eight months in power and rather than look for solutions to the problems facing Nigeria, Lai Mohammed and his cohorts are branding bogus figures about stolen money just to cover up their lack of solution to the country’s economic problems,” he said in a statement signed on his behalf by Lere Olayinka, his special assistant on public communications and new media.

“They are turning governance to Nollywood, such that when one movie is about to end, they release another one. As it appears that the $2.1 billion arms deal movie is getting to an end, Lai Mohammed introduced another movie titled N1.34 trillion loot.

“Unfortunately for them this time around, Nigerians have become tired of watching the Federal Government movies, they now want reality. Nigerians are now aware of the scam in the $2.1 billion arms deal movie having seen that the amount those already charged to court were charged with is not more than N10 billion and $2.1 billion is over N600 billion.

“Therefore, Lai Mohammed must either tell Nigerians details of the 15 former governors and 55 people that he claimed stole N1.34 trillion, where the stolen money is kept and bring back the money or apologise to Nigerians for lying.”

He condemned the manner in which Olisa Metuh, spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was brought to on Tuesday, saying: “Even the masterminds of Mandala and Nyanya bomb blasts, Kabiru Sokoto and Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche were not handcuffed when they were arraigned in court.”

While describing the persistent claim by the federal government that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) destroyed Nigeria for 16 years as hypocritical, Governor Fayose said Nigerians must begin to ask which party majority of those presently ruling the country under the APC government were between 1999 and 2014.

“Majority of those who ran the federal government between 1999 and 2003 under the PDP are in the APC government today. President, vice president, ministers, governors, senators and house of reps members who were part of the PDP government are now in APC. Yet, APC keeps telling Nigerians that PDP ruined the country. This hypocrisy must stop,” he said.

He said no amount of harassment and intimidation will silence opposition in the country, saying President Buhari and his men should rather get used to the reality that opposition must exist in a democracy.