Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike yesterday defended his criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari for pardoning former Governors Joshua Dariye (Plateau) and Rev. Jolly Nyame (Taraba).

The two former governors, who were convicted and jailed for corruption, got pardon by the National Council of State (NCS) at its meeting on Thursday last week.

He said the decision ridiculed Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade, adding that it was better for the Federal Government to scrap the anti-graft agencies.

According to him, the President had, by the gesture, exposed the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) to embarrassment.

Wike, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, spoke at his party’s state secretariat in Kano, as part of his ongoing consultation ahead of the party’s presidential primary.

He was responding to the Presidency’s description of his condemnation of the pardon as “bolekaja” politics, Wike said the pardon should not have happened under a government with an anti-corruption mantra.