Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, has accused the leadership of the House of Representatives of insensitivity over an alleged plot to protect former President Olusegun Obasanjo from appearing before the House Committee probing the $16 billion allegedly spent on the power sector under his administration.

The body, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Yinka Odumakin, accused the house leadership of hiding under Obasanjo’s plea of due process to cow the probe panel into giving the former president a soft landing, saying that it depicts “sheer trivialization of an issue that has brought untold hardship to millions of Nigerians.”

Afenifere said if the house fails to probe Obasanjo, it must disband the panel and stop wasting people’s time, adding that this will make Nigerians to conclude that the house is incapable of serving the nation.
Obasanjo, in a would-be memorandum to the panel had raised issues of respect for his former office and the need not to set a precedent, saying that it is the Speaker or the clerk of the house that should have written to summon him before the panel.

“So Obasanjo knew about due process. Indeed, the chicken has come home to roost. The same Obasanjo who made nonsense of due process for eight years was now talking about due process and citing Scriptures,” the Pan-Yoruba group stated.

“So Obasanjo knew about due process when he asked soldiers to kill hundreds of Odi people in an invasion without recourse to the National Assembly. Due process must have been on leave when soldiers on his order sealed off Bayelsa Broadcasting Station in his bid to force Diepreye Alamiesigha out of office.

“He also did not tell EFCC of due process when it invaded Mike Adenuga’s house with welders to break the doors,” it further queried.
According to Afenifere, “Obasanjo’s administration spent $16 billion to generate darkness in eight years. There are allegations of sleaze and unquantifiable graft characterizing the spending. His Minister of Finance, Okonjo Iweala, has testified on how he personally subverted due process in many cases. Today, our industries are dying, the people are groaning in darkness and several millions of our citizens are jobless as a result of the collapse of the power sector.

“Therefore, giving Obasanjo a soft landing and not probing him is, to say the least, insensitive and sheer trivialization of an issue that has brought untold hardship to millions of Nigerians.”
Odumakin said it was funny for Obasanjo to be talking of the manner of invitation at a time when his daughter has been running from the law for weeks because of corruption charges.

He insisted that Yoruba as a people do not condone corruption, abuse of office let alone impunity. “Therefore, Obasanjo must face the panel and if there is any deal in the PDP top echelon to shield him from justice, it has nothing to do with the Yoruba nation,” the statement added.