Conference of Civil Society for Transparency and Accountability (COCTA) has urged the presidency to disregard the malicious, irresponsible, and inconsistent publication made by some disgruntled elements led by Peoples Democratic Party calling for the suspension of the minister of interior, Olubunmi Tunji Ojo over an imaginary link with the allegation of financial misappropriations in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.
Director, Strategic Communications, COCTA, Amb. Haruna Abdulsalam, said in a statement that those calling unjustifiable suspension of the minister are only envious of the rising profile of Honorable Olubunmi Tunji Ojo due to his great achievements within a short period as Minister of Interior.
Abdulsalam said the Malicious publication on X and other platforms are clear act of social media bullying and pressure on the office of the President of Federal Republic of Nigeria and an attempt to box the president into a corner to take a wrong decision in handling the issue of transparency and accountability among his cabinet members thereby bringing an atmosphere of lack of trust within his team.
“In as much as we commend the president for all steps taken so far to sanitize his government and bring culprits of financial recklessness to book, we also urge the president to be wary of social media urchins who are bent on derailing him and his team with unsubstantiated allegations and classification of financial crimes that has no root in law.
We are surprised at the PDP, their cohorts and other social media rats for the sudden interest in Anti-Corruption drive as initiated and instituted by successive government of the ruling party who came with the mantra at a time the country was being strangled to death by the now opposition party, obviously the opposition party did all their best to frustrate this war against graft, of course as the greatest beneficiary of that endemic act and they fought vigorously to stop it at all cost just for them to maintain the status quo of eating with ten fingers while in government to the detriment of the masses.”
“As a Coalition of Civil Society, we are watching keenly to utmost interest and without bias, but for the total interest of the country. For record purpose Honorable Olubunmi Tunji Ojo was elected to represent his Akoko North East/ Akoko North West federal constituency for a second term in 2023 general elections, he was duly sworn in to the 10th assembly, but the President in his wisdom and great instinct about competence and who can deliver saw in him a visionary and innovative leadership qualities that prompted the President to appoint him as a cabinet Minister and not as a job seeker.
He said his ability to bring much needed innovation and good leadership as an ICT expert is evident in the happenings in the paramilitary agencies under supervision as Minister notably, Nigerian Immigration Service that was able to clear the backlog of pending passport application that he inherited from his predecessor within 100 days of assumption of office as Minister of Interior.
Abdulsalam said, to set the record straight about frivolous allegation of being a Director in a company that got consultancy contract from the ministry headed by suspended Betta Edu, with regards to relevant document from the Corporate Affairs Commission CAC Honorable Olubunmi Tunji Ojo evidently resigned from the board of New Planet Project Limited in 2019 after his election into the House of Representatives. Our question now is, is there any action that should be taken by the Minister with regards to this apart from resigning from the company. The answer is no.
He added that the position of public service rule and other relevant laws guiding public servants is very clear and according to findings it was duly complied with by the Minister, we believe that is supposed to be a guiding principle for all and we the citizens should align with same and not indulge in rumour, biases and sentiments due to political or ethnic sentiment to bring anybody down.
