A civil society group, Coalition
Against Corrupt Leaders, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari not to
consider the immediate past Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde
Fashola (SAN), for appointment.
The Executive Chairman of the group, Mr.
Debo Adeniran, told our correspondent during an interview on Thursday
that Fashola’s administration was engulfed in several controversies
which could not be overlooked.
Adeniran said his organisation was
troubled by many dilapidated schools in the state. He noted that when
the Socio-Economic Right Accountability Project invoked the Freedom of
Information Act to know how the Fashola government spent a $200m World
Bank education funds, the state government refused to disclose it.
He
said instead, the state government continued to run its affairs in
secrecy by claiming that the FOI Act did not apply to state governments.
Adeniran said independent investigations
by his organisation showed that the 1.36km Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge
which was reportedly built for N25bn, cost only N6bn.
He said he had written a series of
petitions to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to probe the
various projects of the Fashola government in the face of the over
N500bn debt left behind by the government.
He said he was shocked to find out that
the commission had continued to ignore all the petitions despite the
fact that Fashsola no longer enjoyed immunity, having left office over
60 days ago.
In a letter addressed to the President
titled, ‘Don’t elevate Fashola,’ the group said if Buhari wanted to
actualise his mission of ‘change’ he would need to distance himself from
controversy.
The letter read, “Mr. President, we are
constrained at this point in time to bring to your attention our
critical reaction to the unbridled speculation making the rounds for
some time now, from the members of the public as well as the media, as
to the fact that the immediate past governor of Lagos State, Mr.
Babatunde Fashola, is being considered by the presidency for higher
national responsibility. Feelers have it that his name is prominent on
the list of the president’s nominees for key offices in your
administration.
“It is gratifying that you have promised
at various fora that your appointments would be purely based on merit
and that tested technocrats, with impeccable records, would be given
their rightful places in your administration, as a way of ensuring good
governance to the people of Nigeria. It is against this background that
our organisation is appealing to you to please take the pains to dig
deep into Mr. Babatunde Fashola’s record of performance as well as that
of financial propriety on the part of his government while in office.”
Fashola’s spokesperson, Mr. Hakeem Bello, did not respond to telephone calls as well as a text message sent to his phone.
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