NOA DG, Onilu Reveals Why Tinubu Has Not Started Probing Buhari, Tells Nigerians What To Do

Newly-appointed Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and former All Progressives Congress (APC) National Publicity Secretary, Lanre Isa-Onilu, has revealed why President Bola Tinubu has not instituted a probe panel against the immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari.

Naija News reports that in an interview with the Sun, Onilu said no president is responsible for probing previous governments except petitions raised to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by concerned Nigerians.

Referencing the case of the embattled former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, Onilu said it is left for the court to prove that the suspect is a messenger and Buhari should be tried, not him.

According to the former APC spokesman, probing any previous government involves a process, implying that with petitions from Nigerians, Tinubu can probe Buhari.

He said, “I don’t know what you mean by probing the Buhari government, and I also don’t know what you mean by mismanagement of funds. However, what I can tell you is that no president comes in with the responsibility on his table to probe the previous government. It is Nigerians that have the right to raise petitions to the EFCC. What I want to hear is that there have been petitions submitted to the EFCC or ICPC, and they refused to work on them. But don’t forget that this same government, within its first three months, has arrested the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, who served the APC government for eight years on this same issue of corruption. The court has not proven him innocent, and we are not saying he is guilty yet, but he is a suspect. It is left for the lawyers to prove that he was just a messenger. They should tell the court that it is not Emefiele who did it but Buhari. However, so long as they have not done that, the person whose hand was found in the soup pot has been arrested.

“I am not saying anybody can probe anybody. I am only telling you of the process. I said that it is the responsibility of the lawyers to prove in court why it should not be Emefiele but Buhari who should be tried. If that happens, then you can now complain. But if the lawyers have not come to court to say no, it is not Emefiele; he was the one caught red-handed and arrested. He is not the only one; even the man who was the chairman of the anti-corruption agents, Bawa, was arrested for the same reason. The same person was appointed by the Buhari-led APC government. It is the government that has taken that step against him. What are Nigerians doing, especially those with the fact that Buhari stole money?”