The Peoples Democratic Party has said the former Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, who resigned her appointment on Friday, must be made to refund the salaries and allowances that she collected.
The party said the refund should start from her days as commissioner in Ogun State from where she was appointed as the minister of finance.
The main opposition party also said Adeosun, who has dual citizenship, must be made to name those who assisted her to allegedly forge her National Youth Service Corps exemption certificate.
The National Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus, stated this in an interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja on Sunday.
He said if Adeosun named those that helped her, she would save the country from embarrassment arising from activities that members of the cartel would carry out in the future.
Secondus said it was not enough for Adeosun to resign, she must be made to face the law to serve as a deterrent to others.
He added that failure to take action would show that the Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari remained partial in its fight against corruption.
Secondus said, “With the impunity that this government is known for, there is no way the minister would have resigned if not because we are in an election year.”
The PDP boss stated that if the minister were to be a woman of honour and the Buhari administration was serious about the fight against corruption, Adeosun ought to have resigned from her job or be sacked the day the scandal became public knowledge.
He said, “We expect the minister return all the money she had collected either as salaries or allowances before this scandal.
“She must calculate what she collected since her days as a commissioner in Ogun State up till the day she packed her belongings and left the ministry of finance and pay same to the coffers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“She must show Nigerians the teller with which she paid the money. This will enable Nigerians to know that she has done the needful.
“Also, we need to know the identities of those who helped her procure the fake NYSC discharged certificate. The government needs to clean the place of such characters.”
Secondus also asked Adeosun to return to Nigeria and serve her fatherland since the law did not exempt her from taking part in the NYSC scheme.
SERAP, CACOL seek further probe, Adeosun’s extradition
Also, two civil society organisations – the Socio-Economic Right and Accountability Project and the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership – said Adeosun’s leaving Nigeria should not stall her prosecution for certificate forgery.
They added that Nigeria should begin the process of her extradition from the United Kingdom.
The SERAP Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni, said, “The former minister’s exit from the country must not stop the prosecution of a forgery case. I understand that Nigeria has a good relationship with the United Kingdom and could extradite anyone wanted for any criminal allegation in the country.”
Also, the CACOL Director, Debo Adeniran, said, “We desire that she should be prosecuted, and that she was able to flee the country is a tragedy. It is an affront on the anti-corruption efforts of the present administration. We thought that as soon as she admitted the matter, she should have been promptly invited. This should not be the end of the case.”
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the African Democratic Congress, Chief Okey Nwosu, said systemic failure in the Federal Government allowed the former minister to scale through her screening and later escape from the country after the certificate forgery allegation was confirmed.
Nwosu said, “There was supposed to be a thorough screening and I wonder if that was done. Also, the allegation had been on for more than two months and the law enforcement agencies kept mute about it. They did not need her resignation before inviting her. The system is not working and the leaders who said they are fighting corruption are not truthful.”
APC says ex-minister’s action honourable
But the APC said Adeosun’s resignation and the acceptance of same by President Muhammadu Buhari demonstrated the strength of character and integrity of the Buhari-led administration.
This was contained in a statement by the acting National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Yekini Nabena, on Sunday.
Source: Punch
