Posted: January 15, 2013 – 19:47
By SaharaReporters, New York
The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has condemned President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for associating with corruption and corrupt people.
The position is contained in a press statement by Debo Adeniran, the Executive Chairman of CACOL, in which he expressed the group’s reaction to the news that Chief Olabode George, a widely-known ex-convict, is vying for the vacant post of PDP Board of Trustee Chairman.
Deriding the President and his party for glorifying and romancing corruption with such impunity and without recourse to morality, CACOL said, “It is sickening that the President, who should show better example for the masses to follow, could glorify corruption with such impunity. Jonathan could not have been serious with his fight against corruption. He is just paying lip service to it. He is supposed to shame and despise corrupt leaders, but he is giving presidential recognition to them.”
The statement also said: “Imagine the President appointing Chief Tony Anenih, whose only achievement as Minister of Works and Housing, was diverting billions of dollars meant for building and rehabilitating our roads into his private coffers, as the Chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority, and the same Anenih is also vying for the position of PDP Board of Trustees Chairman. It is very shameful that our President’s list of associates is replete with criminals. This same President Jonathan was showering praises on former Governor of Bayelsa State cum ex-convict,Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, as his political benefactor sometimes ago.”
In language dripping with sarcasm, CACOL lamented that President Jonathan and the PDP are so barefaced and really do not give a damn about what the people think about their actions.
“It is so saddening that a president that claims to be fighting corruption is dining and wining with ex-convicts,” the statement said. “The signal the President with his political party is sending to the Nigerian citizenry is that, conviction is no longer a stigma in this part of the world since they (convicts) would be celebrated and even compensated with political appointments as soon as they come out of jail.”