Your Excellency, the Sokoto State Progressives For Integrity and Accountable Leadership is a group of bipartisan progressives based in Sokoto, who have convened to write you this letter, in order to draw your kind attention to issues of grievous importance to our state and by extension, our nation as a whole.
We recall, Your Excellency, our collective struggles in 2015 and 2019 that installed you as the leader of our nation, out of the conviction and trust for your integrity. We, in Sokoto state, stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the rest of concerned Nigerians, braving hot and cold, and stood in queues to cast our votes for what we believed was the change Nigeria craved for nearly half a century!
As far as your personal integrity, and incorruptibility are concerned, we have every reason to feel vindicated. For, even though parts of your administration are not without issues concerning corruption, you, Your Excellency have remained above board and exhibited the personal will to fight graft, in all its ramifications.
Now, your tenure as President is coming to a close and you have never neglected to express your dedication to your vision of bequeathing a corruption-free, ethically upright Nigeria to your people.
We wish to, therefore, draw the attention of Mr. President to a clear and present danger, threatening the realization of your noble vision at least in Sokoto state. We do this, out of shared concern for the fate and future of our state and nation.
Your Excellency, it is no longer news that there is an ongoing probe by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Matters Commission (ICPC), and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on the financial activities of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund (NPTF) which began sometime last year, during the tenure of the immediate-past Executive Secretary of the Fund, and an indigene of our state, Ahmed Aliyu, who is the current All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate.
The investigation by ICPC, which involves an N12 billion take-off grant for the award of contracts, seemed to have stalled when Ahmed Aliyu was Executive Secretary. We understand the Commission recently invited/arrested him in Abuja, and subsequently released him on bail. We learned that Ahmed Aliyu has another appointment with the EFCC on January 14, 2023.
Our concern is that certain stalwarts of the APC in Sokoto state, who also hold prominent positions in your government at the federal level are scurrying around, trying to employ their offices to interfere with the ICPC/EFCC investigations.
One of the alleged interlopers against lawful inquiry includes the Senator of the Federal Republic for Sokoto North, and current Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption, the Sokoto state APC leader, Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, against whom there is a subsisting petition with the EFCC, which has obviously not been treated, since 2019.
Senator Wamakko is allegedly bringing his official status to bear on the investigation process, in an effort to, in the instance, delay Ahmed Aliyu’s appearance at the EFCC, until after the January 16 date for the campaign visit of PDP presidential candidate, Ahmed Bola Tinubu to Sokoto.
We are indeed perturbed by the wrong impression this posturing is creating for your integrity at the twilight of your tenure as President. These elements lobbied to deliberately occupy strategic security positions at the national assembly in addition to the Minister of Police Affairs, Maigari Dingyadi who is also from Sokoto. You have repeatedly assured the international community and citizens of this country of your commitment to bequeathing credible elections in 2023. However, pieces of evidence abound on their stubborn nocturnal manoeuvres to undermine your pledge. We view these posturing as serious infractions, and infringement on the course of justice, which stand against every fibre of the principle, for which Your Excellency is renowned. It is, therefore, our firm belief that Mr. President would not sanction, or even allow such brazen interference with the rightful course of the law.
Our object as concerned bipartisan Nigerians from Sokoto state is for Your Excellency to intervene to ensure that lawful inquiry into this matter is not subverted for political expediency or any other reason.
It is our belief that the President has the obligation to weigh into this matter in the interest of justice and the opportunity to unearth one of the causes of the inefficiency of our security agencies in dealing with crime and breach of law and order.
The people of Sokoto state have a right to know the moral and ethical credibility of those who aspire to lead them and sit in trust of their resources. Similarly, Mr. President should as much as possible, endeavor to ascertain the integrity of the potential managers of the system you are leaving behind at all levels of governance.
SIGNED: Convener, Barrister Muhammadu Mujtaba
cc: Chief Justice of the Federation
cc: Attorney-General and Minister of Justice
cc: National Security Adviser
cc: Inspector General of Police
cc: Chairman ICPC
cc: Chairman, EFCC
cc: All media Organisations
