Date 2015-08-07
Category Gist & Gossip
“Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, a civil society group, has warned President Muhammadu Buhari against appointing the immediate past Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, as a minister in his cabinet.
Chairman of the group, Debo Adeniran, revealed to Punch Newspapers on Thursday, August 6, that Fashola’s administration left behind a mountain of debt and was also engulfed in many controversies.
Adeniran said independent investigations by his organisation revealed that the 1.36km Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge which was reportedly built for N25bn, only cost N6bn.
He said he had written several petitions to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to probe the projects of the Fashola government.
The group wrote a letter titled ‘Don’t elevate Fashola,’ to President Buhari, where they advised him 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.””