DON'T DO SELECTIVE ANTI-CORRUPTION WAR.

DON'T DO SELECTIVE ANTI-CORRUPTION WAR.

A Peoples Democratic Party Board of Trustees member, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, has said that he is in support of President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption war but warned that the war must not be selective.

In a telephone interview with our correspondent on Wednesday, the former Minister of Transport said that any Nigerian found culpable of looting public funds should be brought to justice.

Maintaining that the ongoing war against corruption by the Buhari-led administration was becoming selective, however, Babatope said the Federal Government must be careful not to make Nigerians see the anti-corruption campaign as a witch-hunt.

He explained that the PDP members currently on trial for receiving various sums of funds from the immediate past National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), would not have done so if they knew that the funds were meant for the purchase of arms.

Babatope said, “I wish Buhari the best of luck in his war against corruption but I don’t understand the nature of the anti-corruption war. When he was a military Head of State, he jailed politicians for allegedly embezzling security funds. Are we not on the same path again?

“No politician would take the money meant for securing the lives of Nigerian soldiers battling Boko Haram if they knew where the money was coming from.”

The party chief condemned the manner the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, was brought in handcuffs into the Federal High Court premises in Abuja, on Tuesday.

“Buhari owes Nigerians and the world an explanation about the manner Metuh was brought to court. It’s enraging. We must be careful in this country. We all must support Buhari’s anti-corruption war but it must not be a witch-hunt,” he said.

Babatope, however, said that Metuh should be tried if funds from the Office of the NSA were traced into his private account but he added that bringing him into court in handcuffs was victimisation.