Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bode George, has criticised former Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) over what he called his 'arrogant and befuddled attempt of justifying the apparent reckless misappropriation of Lagos State tax payers' money to set up a personal website'.
He said Fashola's action is disgusting and annoying; saying in a more decent society, Mr. Fashola should be facing a comprehensive investigation rather than being considered for any appointment at all.
In a statement he issued and made available to journalists in Lagos, George said “Fashola shows no remorse, no semblance of regret, no guilty nudging of conscience. Instead, he still attempts to ride a high horse, puffing and stomping in feigned seraphic innocence. We are not fooled.
“We knew all along that the emperor had no clothes. Using 78 million naira tax payers money to build a website is reckless misappropriation. The phony over 25 billion naira used to build a mere kilometer long link bridge is outrageous venality. The spurious 1.5 billion naira allegedly spent on phantom pedestrian bridges is another con game. And there are so many of these screaming illegalities observable in the record of our poster boy of yesterday”.
He said President Muhammadu Buhari should use the Fashola’s case as an acid test of sparing no one with any intimation of public malfeasance.
“Rather than engaging in a smug chest beating of innocence Mr. Fashola should first remove himself from any consideration of public appointment and openly call for a judicial probe of his eight years in office”, he said adding that nothing else will bring out the true picture.
He said Lagos State is now the biggest debtor in the federation with over a trillion naira in bad debts adding that, it may take at least 40 years before Fashola’s indebtedness can be defrayed.
George also did not spare the national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the immediate predecessor of Fashola, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, saying ‘there is no way to divorce Fashola from Bola Tinubu.
“They are both linked in unutterable complicity. If Fashola stands today in tarnished allegations, Tinubu, his godfather, cannot possibly distance himself in innocent escapism”.