Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state and the presidency have exchanged heated arguments over the state pardon granted by the President Muhammadu Buhari to a former Governor of Plateau, Joshua Dariye, and his Taraba State counterpart, Jolly Nyame, both who have been convicted of corruption.
Wike had knocked the administration of Buhari for granting the convicted men state pardon, saying it ridiculed the judiciary which had convicted them of corruption.
The governor who spoke in Minna on Saturday, during a meeting with delegates of the Peoples Democratic Party, lamented that the Buhari regime is selective in its war against corruption.
The presidential hopeful also added that the state pardon was strategically done towards the forthcoming 2023 general elections. According to him, the convicted men were both pardoned by Buhari for election purpose.
In his words: “I want to tell you that this government is very deceptive and they have deceived us enough.
“You have big big people, you jail them after all the court proceedings and waste of money, then you ridicule the judiciary by granting them pardon.
“How will the international community look at us with these type of things we do. Look at the amount spent in the prosecutions and you wake up one morning and messed it up all because of politics.”
“He obviously wants them to help him during the elections, he wants Dariye to help with Plateau while Nyame will work for Taraba.
“If it is not for election purpose, why did he not grant pardon to the likes of James Ibori and Atuche?”
However, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, on Sunday faulted the criticism of Wike, describing it as ‘bolekaja politics.’
The aide who took to his official Facebook page said the criticism issued by Wike is coming at a wrong time, adding that the governor should have expressed his opinion during the Council meeting where the decision was made.
He wrote, “I do not see the moral justification for Governor Wike’s criticism of the decision of the government to pardon Governors Dariye and Nyame at a meeting to which he was duly invited but did not attend.
“The Rivers State Deputy Governor, Dr. Ipalibo Banigo who joined the Council of State meeting virtually switched off her camera so it was difficult to determine whether she sat behind the dark screen or just walked away after first joining.
“If the Governor felt so strongly about the pardons, the right was for him or his representative to sit through the meeting and assert views. This did not do. A press release after the meeting is bolekaja politics.”
