‘Unproven, no evidence’ – Fashola plays down allegations against Tinubu

Babatunde Fashola, minister of works and housing, says the
allegations against Bola Tinubu, president-elect, are “unproven”.

Speaking on Sunday in an interview with Channels Television,
Fashola said the outcome of the presidential election showed that Nigerians
were not bothered about the controversies trailing Tinubu.

On March 1, the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) declared Tinubu, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as
the winner of the February 25 election.

In the build-up to the election, there were questions about
the educational background, exact age, family ties, and source of wealth of the
former governor of Lagos.

The forfeiture of $460,000 by Tinubu to the US government in
1993 over alleged involvement in illicit drug trafficking equally elicited
questions about his personality.

Asked during the interview why Tinubu is always the subject
of controversy in terms of exact age and name, Fashola said the former Lagos
has a history of prevailing over difficult situations to achieve success.

The minister added that the controversies trailing Tinubu
might be an indication of a “positive” turnaround for the country.

Fashola said there is no “sainthood” in governance and that
the focus should be on performance and efficiency.

“I think those issues have been ventilated sufficiently,” he
said.

“When Nigerians have decided, those issues don’t matter.
That is what they have said by these votes.

“Everytime, it gets more difficult, that is his path to
success. There is no easy day for him. The more difficult it gets, you can be
sure, it is Asiwaju.

 “I think now that all
of these hurdles have been surmounted. Maybe there is a divine purpose. Maybe
perhaps, this is where Nigeria begins to turn in the most positive ways
forever.

“Governance is not about sainthood. It is about efficiency,
performance, and delivery.

“You must understand that we should not be looking for
saints. All of the allegations that were levelled against him have been either
unproven or no evidence offered in support of them but they have run along for
a while.”

Fashola, who was the head of the Tinubu-Shettima election
planning directorate, said the APC trained 2,000 agents from all the states and
sent them to the states to train the agents in their respective states.

According to the minister, some of the agents came from the
United States to campaign for Tinubu.

Fashola said the ruling party also had pre-election internal
polls but never released them, noting that those that predicted victory for
Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar were “badly conducted”.

He also said that the party knew its results from the
situation room before the final declaration by the INEC.