Fayose’s Love Letter To Osinbajo

In this piece, Nigeria News take a look at the letter from Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

One has tagged this letter a love memo, going by the tone of its contents. The Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose is unarguably one of the undiplomatic politicians Nigeria ever produced.

His approach to issues is aggressive. His continuous attack on President Muhammadu Buhari and the present administration of the All Progressives Congress, APC is visible and he never hid his hatred for the ruling party.

He had since paid dearly for it with his bank account once frozen by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. He fought his battle both in the media and in the court and to some extent, Fayose looks like he is winning.
One had expected the Ekiti governor to lash out at the Acting President Osinbajo since President Muhammadu Buhari left Nigeria for London on a medical vacation but rather Fayose had been addressing Osinbajo with decorum.

While he had always refuted various stories on Buhari’s health status, Fayose decided to write a letter to Osinbajo and made a copy of his letter available to the media, asking the acting President to produce the report of the probe on the allegations of corruption against two public officers in the present administration.
Fayose mentioned the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, NIA, Ambassador Ola oke and the sacked Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Babachir Lawal.

Lawal was alleged to have diverted about N300 million meant for the welfare of the Internally Displaced Persons, IDP to a company where he is a director. He was alleged to have approved the funds for a grass cutting contract that was never a part of the IDP project.

For Oke, the NIA boss, was found to have involved in stashing about N13 billion in an Ikoyi residence. The EFCC arrested both and their cases were investigated.

President Buhari inaugurated a probe panel with Osinbajo as the chairman to look into the allegation.
After about two weeks, the presidency announced the suspension of the two but never told the public whether they were guilty or not.
Currently, nothing is being said about the culprits while the media have become silent on the whole saga.
Fayose had also become unnecessary silent, having being in forefront of opposition until Monday when he came up with a letter asking Osinbajo to release the probe report.
Fayose urged Osinbajo to act more like a pastor and lawyer by telling members of the public how the probe went instead of sweeping the case under the carpet.
He said that he would not mind taking the Federal Government to court for failing to release the report of the probe panel.
To Fayose, the current administration has abused the fundamental human rights of many Nigerians in the guise of fighting corruption but has failed to make a single arrest of any member of the APC, including those who had been found culpable of corruption.

He recalled how almost all the chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP were arrested, molested and detained by the APC led government even when the court had not proclaimed them guilty of any corrupt practice.
Fayose bemoaned the style at which the Federal Government is using to fight corruption. According to him, the government is only out to persecute those in opposition and this has shown in the slap on the palm’s treatment for Lawal and Oke.
He capped his argument when he referred Osinbajo to the statement made by an APC senator, Shehu Sani, representing Kaduna Central that the current administration only treats its corrupt members with deodorants but others with insecticides.