It’s been tough fighting corruption ―Presidency

THE Presidency has admitted that the battle to uproot corruption from Nigeria has not been easy, adding that corruption has been fighting back, finding accomplices in various forms and guises.

SPECIAL Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in a statement in Abuja, on Sunday, said the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration would, however, fight corruption to a standstill, in spite of strong resistance by some individuals and groups to thwart the efforts.

The presidential aide, who featured in a radio programme, tagged: “Hannu Da Yawa,” at the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Kaduna zonal station, on Saturday, said “those whose illicit ways of accumulating money have been stopped will criticise this government, but all that will not derail the unfaltering commitment of the President Buhari’s administration to the war against corruption.

“He is aware that this was one of the main reasons Nigerians in their millions put their trust in him; the main reason they voted him into power in 2015.

“To keep that trust of ordinary Nigerians who voted him into the office, he has vowed to give corruption a good fight. He will not let them down.”

He dismissed the insinuation that some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) were being spared in the ongoing campaign against corruption, saying “all are equal before the law.”

Shehu disclosed that upon directives by the president, the National Hajj Commission carried out an audit of accommodation agents in both Makkah and Madina in Saudi Arabia, adding that the exercise saved the country more than $16.7 million.

On the ongoing relocation of international flight services to Kaduna Airport, the presidential aide challenged the government and people of Kaduna State to devise ways by which the social and economic benefits brought to the state did not depart the city after the rehabilitation of the Abuja airport.