The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) yesterday said the ongoing “Good Governance Tour” embarked upon by the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku is a huge scam and an illegality.

National publicity secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in a statement said the tour must be stopped immediately and those behind it made to account for the public funds they have collected in the process.

He also commended Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State for rejecting a multi-million-naira proposal from the Minister asking the state government to bankroll the Edo leg of the tour.

“Such a tour as currently being led by the minister across the country is an illegality in a federalism, the system of government which Nigeria is running, because it distorts the constitution and gives the impression that the federal government is a supervisor of the various states. Under our federalism, no state is subject to any control from the federal government, and no governor is mandated to report to the president.

“To now have a team assembled by the federal government inspecting the projects being carried out by the various states are not only fraudulent and illegal, but amounts to a blatant waste of public funds. It is a carry-over from the days of military rule under which Nigeria was governed as a unitary state,” he said.

“It is also a case of double jeopardy for the states, whose projects are made to look like they are being executed by the federal government, while at the same time they (states) are being made to pay for the meaningless tour. We say, unequivocally, that this tour fits into other fraudulent schemes concocted by this federal government to swindle the people, enrich a few and pad its war chest for the 2015 elections, and we are talking here of SURE-P as well as the oil subsidy and the pension fund scam. This jamboree must end today!” Mohammed said.