Garba Shehu To Nyesom Wike: You Lack Moral Right To Condemn Nyame, Dariye Pardon

The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, Mallam Shehu Garba has said the governor of Rivers State, South-South Nigeria, Nyesom Wike lacks the moral rectitude to condemn the state pardon granted by the former governors of Taraba and Plateau states, Jolly Nyame and Joshua Dariye, respectively.

Mr Wike, during a visit to Minna, Niger State on Saturday when he visited delegates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the party’s presidential primaries, had said the Buhari administration’s anti-corruption war was selective.

“I want to tell you that this government is very deceptive and they have deceived us enough.

“You have big people, you jail them after all the court proceedings and waste of money, then you ridicule the judiciary by granting them pardon,” he said:

But reacting to the diatribe in a Facebook post, Mallam Shehu said: “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.

Mr Presidebt’s spokesman further stated that 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 (thing) was for him or his representative to sit through the meeting and assert views. This (he) did not do. A press release after the meeting is bolekaja politics”, he started.

The National Council of State Thursday granted a state pardon to former Mr Dariye and Mr Nyame who are serving terms in jail for corruption.

The governors were among 159 prisoners pardoned by the Council at a meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa in Abuja.

Among the beneficiaries are a former military general and Minister under the Sani Abacha regime, Tajudeen Olanrewaju, an army lieutenant-colonel, Akiyode, who was an aide of former deputy to General Abacha, Oladipo Diya; and all the junior officers jailed over the 1990 abortive Gideon Orkar coup.