President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday said that he was not corrupt because in all the positions he has held in the country, he has never been convicted for corruption
He made the declaration at Abakaliki township stadium in Ebonyi State, during the All Progressives Congress (APC), presidential campaign.
Buhari was former military head of state (1983-85), governor of the defunct North Eastern State (1975–1976), and chairman Petroleum Trust Fund (1994-95).
He said: “I can assure you that I, as the president, today have never been in a position of abusing trust. As a governor of the whole six north eastern states, as minister of petroleum for over three years and as a former head of state. I was arrested, detained, investigated but they never found anything against me.”
The president thanked Ebonyi people for turning out in their large numbers for the rally, saying that they demonstrated that they cannot be bought; he urged them to hold him by his words.
Buhari recalled that when he came for campaign in 2015, he promised three things: to tackle the security situation in the country that time in 17 local governments in the North East were under the control of Boko Haram but as at today, there is no local government under the control of the terrorists.
He said: “The important thing is that, please try and hold us by our promise. When we came here the last time, we told you there are three fundamental things the country is facing. First we had to secure the country because part of the country was under threat in the North East, at least 17 local governments were in the hands of Boko Haram; second was the economy. The able-bodied unemployed persons in Nigeria are too many. The thirdly was to fight corruption.”
The president congratulated the military and other law- enforcement agencies that today none of the local governments in the North East is under the control of Boko Haram.
“They have resulted in indoctrinating young men and abducting young girls below the ages of 15, wrap them with explosives and send them to soft targets – churches, mosques, market places and motor parks. Even that is becoming rear now.”
Buhari also said that with a favourable weather, Nigeria had achieved food security and no longer imports rice, adding that the money saved from importation was now being used for infrastructural development
He added that the money is now being channeled to building roads, rails among other infrastructural development.
He added that “the last thing is about fighting corruption and bribery. Fighting corruption is a very difficult process, but we are doing our best by trying to reorganise the Nigeria police and the judiciary itself. Because, we appointed people that went into public office without their own houses, without even maybe good cars, but within three years they build houses in Abuja, opened accounts in Europe or America and we cannot touch them. But when we discover what they have, we take them to court and when we take them to the court, we hope they will be prosecuted and then we will punish them.
“I can assure you that I, as the president today, have never been in a position of abusing trust. As a governor of the whole six north eastern states, as Minister of Petroleum for over three years and as a former head of state. I was arrested, detained, investigated but they never found anything against me. So I went through all the rigmarole that is against our development as a nation. God has given us people; he has given us resources.
President Buhari, therefore, urged the people to vote for him to continue with the good work his administration had started.
The APC state chairman, Eze Nwachukwu Eze, described Governor David Umahi’s administration as a total failure, urging the president to resist the temptation of believing the governor’s sweet talks, that he would support his re-election.
The Ebonyi APC party boss said, the civil servants in the state had been short changed by the PDP administration. He said that the governor pays only what he feels like paying at the end of every month. Source