Jonathan is not probing me – AGF Adoke denies corruption probe

by Rachel Ogbu

Mohammed-Bello-Adoke (Photo: Sahara Reporters)

SaharaReporters published that in a letter to Executive Secretary of the Anti-Corruption Network, Dino Melaye, the Nigeria Police Force had announced that it was investigating the allegations of corruption, abuse of office and incompetence leveled against the Minister last month.

But Adoke has disproved the claims that the president commenced a probe on him for alleged corruption, saying it was him who had invited the police to carry out the investigations.

In a statement signed by legal counsel to the AGF, Ahmed Raji, Adoke made reference to an online media website which had published claims that President Jonathan initiated a probe on him after Melaye made allegations of corruption.

A paragraph in the statement went on to show a request to the Inspector-General of Police by Adoke’s team to probe the allegations and it reads:

“Accordingly, we have our client’s instructions to request you to kindly cause an investigation to be carried into all the allegations by promptly inviting the said Dino Melaye to come and justify all the allegations he has made which we hasten to say are nothing but criminal libel.”

The statement reads thus:

“The current exercise being embarked upon by the police is therefore at the instance of our client and not the president as being insinuated. We want to place on record that this is not the first time our client will be submitting himself to a public enquiry because he has nothing to hide.”

“On a past occasion when our client submitted himself, his accusers came apologising as they admitted that they were misled into publishing what was and is still patently false against him.”

While our client concedes the right of every individual to freedom of speech, it is our contention that the freedom goes with a duty. It is not a licence for anyone to make any unsubstantiated allegation against any individual.”

“And this is why our client has deemed it fit to invite the police authorities to look into the allegations and make appropriate findings.”

Sahara Reporters say:

It would be recalled that on April 4, the Anti-Corruption Network sent a petition to President Godluck Jonathan in which it accused the Minister of massive corruption, abuse of office and gross incompetence, and asked the President, if his war against corruption was serious, to fire him. The petition contained a lengthy chronicle of allegations against the Minister.

On April 11, the Network wrote another petition in which it reminded President Jonathan of its original petition, and again called on him to get rid of the Minister.

Prior to those activities, in February, another group of anti-corruption campaigners, the Anti-Corruption Coalition, called on Mr. Adoke to resign his office or be prosecuted for “aiding and abetting” corruption in the country.

Similarly, in a report published in January 2012, iReports-ng.com accused Mr. Adoke of secretly operating four secret accounts in which he had $40 million US dollars, 5.3 million Great Britain Pounds and N6.2billion Naira. The Minister denied the reports.

If rumours of the police investigation are true, this will be the first time that Mr. Jonathan is initiating the probe of a member of his cabinet, several of whom faced massive allegations of corruption and are publicly derided by the public.