PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a statement in Abuja today, 4 September, 2015 said that President Buhari and his Vice, Osinbajo should stop hoodwinking and deceiving Nigerians with ‘just the release of a mere list of belongings which falls short of credibility, transparency and anti-corruption standards’.
He however dared the President Buhari and his Vice to make the copies of their assets declaration forms submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau public.
In the statement, Metuh recalled that during electioneering campaign on March 18, 2015, President Buhari pledged to declare his asset publicly quoting him thus, “I pledge to publicly declare my assets and liability and also encourage my political appointees to publicly declare their assets and liability.”
In his reaction to the purported report of the President and Vice President asset declarations, he said, “We have noted the release of a flimsy list of belongings of President Buhari and Vice President Osinbajo by the Presidency, who want such to pass as the public declaration of assets as pledged by the President.
Nigerians are not deceived by this poor attempt at window-dressing designed by the Presidency to hoodwink the unsuspecting populace in a desperate bid to shore up its diminished image.
“We ask, is the resort to a mere list, instead of true copies of the declaration, not a ploy to give the Presidency a window for denial in consonance with their widely observed inclination for flip-flopping, back tracking and brazen denials of their statements and actions?”
Metuh skeptically said, “All we want is credibility, integrity and sincerity of purpose. We are not questioning how a President, who by December last year, declared that he had only N1 million in his account, could suddenly now list N30 million in the same bank account by May 29, and after an expensive campaign; we are not yet demanding the public declaration of his assets in his wife’s name.
“We are not even applauding the multiplication of his cows from 150 to 250 in a space of three months, arising from his dual and conflicting pronouncements on this issue. Mr. President, this is a mere list of your belongings and not a public declaration of assets in fulfillment of your covenant with Nigerians”.
