BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Wednesday said the declaration of assets of many ruling party candidates shown in the affidavit docents submitted to the Election Commission is ‘like the story of Aladdin’s lamp.’
However, he said the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is completely silent about these financial statements since it has become a tool only to oppress and harass the opposition party leaders and dissidents.
Speaking at a virtual press briefing, the BNP leader also said, "The affidavits of their (AL’s) ministers, MPs, dummy and beneficiary and independent candidates of the upcoming one-party and stage-managed election remind of the famous Aladdin’s lamp in the Arabic fairytale.”
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He also said as the many ruling party candidates showed the houses, cars, apartments in upscale areas abroad while duplexes and many other things in their affidavits suggest that they are living in paradise.
Rizvi said the ministers, MPs of the 'vote-robbing’ regime and the ruling party leaders have amassed huge wealth and cash in the last 15 years. “Their wives, children and in-laws have also become unusually rich.”
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Though ordinary businessmen suffer losses, he said Awami ‘fascist’ politicians have no losses. “Awami politics has become such a business where there is no risk and no risk of loss. They make only profits in whatever business they’re doing. None of them faced a loss in share business. They have also gained many times in agriculture and fish business. The wives have also made crores of taka and assets looking after their husbands' businesses.”
Rizvi also said the ruling party leaders amassed a mountain of wealth and a fleet of cars with the touch of Awami League’s magic stick. “The ministers who had an annual income below one lakh in their affidavits 10 years back now own crores of taka.”
He also said the ruling party leaders still showed very little wealth of their original assets in the affidavits they submitted to the Election Commission to contest the forthcoming national election. “They didn’t mention their ill-gotten money, second homes abroad and the money they siphoned off abroad in their affidavits.”
The BNP leader said those who do the politics of Awami League their target is to build mountains of illegal wealth by indulging in plundering. “Only a little wealth of the looters has come out in the affidavits. The MPs, ministers, state ministers and independent candidates also concealed a lot of information about their assets.”
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He said the ACC is silent about the ill-gotten assets of the ruling party leaders as they act at the behest of the Prime Minister. “They become blind when they see the wealth of the Awami looters.”
The BNP leader also said the ACC has been turned into a partisan institution as its current job is to hunt down the BNP leaders and and dissidents.
He claimed that more than 340 leaders and activists have been arrested in the last 24 hours as of 5pm on Wednesday.