Itse Sagay, chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), says he is not in any way creating enemies for President Muhammadu Buhari contrary to the claims of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Sagay spoke with newsmen on the sidelines of PACAC’s strategic engagement with investigative journalists in Lagos on Thursday in response to the caution by the APC to desist from making utterances that could be interpreted as an attack on the national assembly.
In a statement released earlier in the week by Bolaji Abdullahi, spokesman of the party, APC had said as a professor of law, Sagay ought to appreciate the need not to denigrate the institutions of democracy.
“Our expectation would be that as a Law Professor of repute, Prof. Sagay would appreciate the need to not denigrate the institutions of democracy, be it the executive, legislature or judiciary.
“Moreover, as an appointee of Mr. President, we should expect the learned professor to key into his principal’s temper and help him to make friends that would make his job easier and not make enemies of people who, by virtue of the position they occupy under our law, are critical to the running of government and the nurturing of our democracy,” the statement read.
But Sagay said he would rather focus on his work as PACAC chairman rather than being dragged into unnecessary issues with politicians who think only of opportunism and lack principles.
“How does the party spokesman know what creates enemy for the President? Did the President complain that enemies are being created for him? The man who spoke is an APC official. I’m not an APC member. I’m not an appointee of the APC. Let him face the work of his party while I face my work,” Sagay said.
While expressing concern at the rate at which the EFCC was losing corruption cases at the law courts, Sagay said his committee is studying the situation while charging all those in the vanguard of fighting corruption in the country should not relent or despair.
