The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of aiding corruption in the secret release of over N16.6billion Paris Club fund to Osun State.
A statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, at the weekend, said that the “PDP investigation has revealed that the N16.67billion is to be diverted as bribe to INEC officials, compromised international observers as well as pay hoodlums contracted by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in its desperate plot to rig the September 22, 2018, Osun State governorship elections.”
The party said it was reprehensible that President Buhari, whose handlers have been parading as ‘Mr. Integrity’, could approve such dark scheme to convert funds meant for payment of several months’ arrears of workers’ salaries to bribe electoral officers and pay thugs to foist a rejected leadership on an already impoverished people.
“Further investigation reveals that bulk of the money has already been pencilled for sharing to APC leaders, especially at the national level, as bribe, to short-circuit the system to favour President Buhari’s re-election bid, while the people of Osun continue to suffer deprivation,” the statement noted.
According to the statement, “The PDP has been further made aware of how part of the fund will be moved to private company accounts as well as various hidden locations for the compromised INEC officials and APC leaders.
“Indeed, these revelations have clearly shown that the Buhari Presidency and the APC care less about the welfare of Nigerians and have completely sold themselves to sleazes and corruption for selfish gains.
“The PDP, therefore, charges the people of Osun State, particularly the workers to rise up and reject this direct assault on their rights, sensibilities and survival as a people, by the APC, which have become notorious for corruption and subversion of rules.
“Moreover, the PDP has been at alert regarding the movement of these funds and other secret deals between the APC and INEC and will not hesitate to expose the INEC officials, including a close relation of the President, who has been the arrow head of plots to rig elections for the APC.
“The PDP invites the world to note how President Buhari and the APC, who were huge beneficiaries of credible elections conducted by the PDP in 2015, are bent at destroying our hard-earned democracy, just because they have been rejected by Nigerians.
“Nevertheless, in spite of these machinations, the PDP wants the APC to know that it has not retracted the resolve to contend with it head to head, in all ramifications and magnitude, to discomfit and dismantle its rigging machinery, beginning with September 22, 2018, Osun State governorship election.
“The PDP commends state governors, particularly a few in the APC, who have spoken out against this sneaky act by the Buhari Presidency.
“Our party will continue to work with these patriotic individuals in the overall quest to free our nation from the shackles and misrule of the Buhari-led APC,” Ologbondiyan added.
Meanwhile, The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on the National Publicity Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Yekini Nabena, to stop being a masquerade and accept the challenge to debate with one of the Senate President’s aides on live television.
According to the party, Nabena depicted as a depreciation of the standards that should be associated with the spokesman of a ruling party.
A statement by the PDP spokesman in Kwara State, Tunde Ashaolu, which was made available to newsmen, said Nabena had continued to embarrass the ruling party because he lacked the necessary educational or political qualifications to hold such a position.
The statement reads: “People, who know Nabena, are aware that he does not have the necessary pedigree, experience or qualifications to hold such a crucial position. What are his professional and political antecedents? Who knew him before he became the acting publicity secretary?
“This man continues to embarrass the APC and himself through his juvenile press statements and tweets. I mean, for those of us who have been at this level, even at the state level, we know that it takes a certain degree of level and clear headedness to perform effectively as a party spokesman.
“Saraki’s aides have challenged him. He should stop being a masquerade and come out of hiding. Let him accept the challenge and tell the Nigerian people how he and his party have failed all Nigerians. He cannot continue to hide behind press statements, which are authored from Lagos for him. He should come out and give a face and verbal expressions to these statements in public.
“When compared with people who have held this position as spokespersons of political parties in Nigeria like Chief Bola Ige, who was publicity secretary of Action Group in the First Republic, Chief M.C.K. Ajuluchukwu, who served in that capacity for the UPN in the Second Republic, Prof. David Iornem and Dr. Doyin Okupe, who played the roles in the SDP and NRC in the aborted Third Republic, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, who is the immediate past publicity secretary of APC and his opposite in the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, to mention a few, where will this Nabena fit in? He is definitely a misfit.
“That position is meant for achievers who have done well in their respective professions, not for an upstart like Yekinni Nabena. However, with the low level that the APC has descended to, we are not surprised that such an incompetent man with no known professional background, who claims to author indecent press statements, dripping with falsehood, is the spokesperson of the ruling party in Nigeria.
“Nabena is an example of why candidates should always have deputies that are qualified, capable and good enough to replace them. When APC fielded this misfit as deputy publicity secretary to assist Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, a Chevening scholar and former minister, they did not envisage that a situation may arise where Nabena will become substantive spokesperson. Look at the pitiable face of the APC public communication now. This Nabena is definitely a poster boy of his drowning party. What a shame!,” Ashaolu stated.
