..A foremost Nigerian Minister of repute

Prominent Civil Society and Pro-democracy Groups have condemned the recent attempt to drag the name of the Hon Olubunmi Tunji Ojo, Minister of Interior in the on going accusation against the suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu.

According to the statement ” Let us first of all commend President Bola Tinubu for his prompt handling of the EduGate in the best interest of the nation and by allowing the relevant agencies to investigate the matter to its logical conclusion devoid of interference from any quaters”.

In the statement authored by Ismail Ibrahim Bakori, the President of Arewa Voters Assembly(AVA) and Comrade Segun Adegoke of the Progressive Action for Justice Unity and Democracy(PAJUD) stated that the democratic handling over of power on May 29, 2023, opened up fresh possibilities for a renewal of our political and socio economic life on the foundation of accountability and transparency on the part of elected public office holders.

“Our attention has been drawn to the barrage of mischievous accusations being labelled against Hon Olubunmi Tunji Ojo, Minister of Interior by hirelings of mischief and failed politicians from the People’s Democratic Party( PDP) in their desperate attempt to link him with Edu Gate”.

The groups posit that in less than eight months that President Tinubu assumed office, Ojo has come out with a well defined mission, vision, blueprint and seriousness of purpose in the onerous task of addressing the multifarious problems and challenges confronting the Interior Ministry. The promptness with which he tackled the international passport scarcity and other matters are eloquent testimonies that he is a star boy of the Tinubu’s administration and that he is focused and seriously minded political appointee of the government.

“We posit that since the beginning of the Nigerian democracy, the political firmament and landscape is over dosed with different genres of characters, ranging from the good, the bad and ugly. Sadly, the characters behind the campaign of calumny and distractions against Hon Ojo represents the ugliest part the Nigerian political elites. Their sixteen years of wasteful, fruitless, misrule and of the Nigerian state speaks negatively of them. They lacked the moral responsibility to launch any smear campaign, mudslinging and mischief making against Hon Ojo who instituted decorum in the affairs of the Nigerian Interior Ministry at the moment”. Adding that “Instead of throwing tantrums and vile mischief, the PDP should go back to the drawing table, put their house in order and give the ruling APC a credible opposition”.

“Our findings on the fabricated allegations against him revealed that he truly established the said company 10 years ago, but resigned from the directorship in the 2019 when he contested for the House of Representatives seat and has not been involved either in the management of the company or being a signatory to the accounts company anymore. Furthermore, Hon Ojo gave proper account of himself during his appearance on a Channels TV programme few days ago. And the Certified True Copy of Corporate Affairs Commission has been made available to the Nigerian public to authenticate his claims and the veracity of the rumour mill.

Accordingly, we posited that Hon Ojo reformed the Interior Ministry from an obscure public holiday declaration outfit to a world class result oriented one. Also he is working to ensure respect for any citizen holding Nigerian passport in his policy of implementation of principle of reciprocity in international relations by stopping the visa on arrival privilege granted foreign nationals whose nations subject Nigerians to tedious visa application regime among other new found progressive initiatives.

“It is evidently clear that Hon Ojo has warmed himself into the hearts of Nigerians with his above average performance in office thereby putting the Tinubu administration into positive reckoning but very sadly rented critics are working so hard and tirelessly to pollute the atmosphere with baseless, unwarranted, misplaced, political motivated and unsubstantiated allegations against him. The same people of questionable integrity that left behind legacies of terrible misdeeds, bizarre grafts, mindless rapacity, failed third term agenda and unimaginable atrocities”.

“They are devilish and leprous to the extent that Nigerians are not ready to allign with their campaign of blackmail laced with sinister motives against Hon Ojo”.

“We urge Hon Ojo to ignore further campaign of calumny and distractions against him from the axis of mischief makers and agent provocateurs calculated to distract him from accomplishing the mission assigned to him by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Because the entire allegations are targeted towards deflating the tide of public opinion in favour of the present government. In fact, we must state it clearly and categorically that Hon Ojo is a victim of conspiracy by the cartel of passport racketeering he dismantled, now fighting back to take destroy his unblemished reputation and time honoured record of excellence and honesty”.

They concluded that after all, Nigeria is a country founded on constitutional democracy anchored on the rule of law and due process. And that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is trying to entrench the country along such path and place Nigeria on the comity of nations with his Renewed Hope Agenda.