By Nuel Suji, Abuja.
The PDP caucus in the House of Representatives on Wednesday faulted the Buhari administration’s anti-corruption crusade, saying it seems to have a predetermined agenda.
The PDP lawmakers in the Lower House said Buhari’s on-going probe of corrupt officials and functionaries of the immediate past administration smacks off vendetta.
Briefing newsmen Wednesday in Abuja, chairman of the caucus’ Media Committee Rep Rima Shawulu (PDP Taraba) said the way the anti-corruption crusade is being driven, it appears the present administration had a predetermined agenda of those to be targeted.
He submitted that while the caucus absolutely believes- in and supports anti-corruption crusade as a means of sanitizing the economy, the exercise should be all-encompassing and prosecuted holistically, not to be seen as a vendetta mission.
According to the chairman Media Committee PDP House of Reps Caucus corruption is a crime with no status of time limitation, adding that as long as facts could be presented in a crime- case it should not be neglected but prosecuted, irrespective of how long way back the crime was committed.
In calling on the present administration to cast its anti-corruption net farther-back than the lifespan of the Jonathan administration, Rep Shawlu said President Muhammadu Buhari lacked constitutional powers to draw an arbitrary line dividing which period of the Nigerian Nationhood to probe and which to ignore.
He argued that since government was a continuum, what transpired in one administration or is left undone has direct bearing on happenings in subsequent administrations and as such a government should not be isolated for probe.
He then expressed optimism that the PDP which is currently being re-engineered would bounce back to once again hold power at the centre, citing the Ghanaian example where the then ruling party handed over to the opposition after an election and four years later recaptured power.
