The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that the Federal Government is using the war against terror as a pretext to siphon funds.
The allegation is coming at the heels of the $1billion which state governors have authorised the government to take from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) belonging to all tiers of government.
In a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbodiyan in Abuja yesterday, the PDP said government’s criticism against the PDP is an attempt to divert attention from the sleave going on under the present administration and its moves to use the fight against terrorism as a conduit to siphon public funds for partisan purposes.
The PDP challenged the government to address the issues it had raised particularly the withdrawal from the ECA fund rather than making unsubstantiated allegations against the former ruling party.
The statement read: “The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described as inexcusable, moves by the APC Federal Government to divert attention from its attempt to pilfer $1b from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) to finance partisan activities.
The PDP, which insisted that the Federal Government must address the issue, noted that “the attempt by the APC Federal Government to divert attention from the fraud, by resorting to unsubstantiated allegations against the PDP only reinforces its manipulative tendencies and arrogant spurn to the sensibilities of Nigerians.”
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan in a statement yesterday also challenged the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, to substantiate his claims that the PDP was rebranding with stolen money. Ologbondiyan said ‘such wild allegation was only intended to divert public attention from the heavy sleazes under the current administration, the latest being the moves to use the fight against terrorism as a conduit to siphon public funds for partisan purposes.
“The Federal Government has failed to address issues raised by the PDP and majority of Nigerians, including APC members, who can not fathom how this administration would want to expend N365bn on fighting insurgents it claimed had been technically defeated.
“It is indeed appalling that rather than being remorseful, the APC Federal Government has renewed its wild allegations and cheap blackmail against the PDP.
“It is a clear to all that the PDP do not have access to public funds and cannot be rebranding with stolen money. Instead, we are rebranding on the grace of the general goodwill of Nigerians who have suffered untold hardships in close to three years of APC government.
“While we understand the nervousness of the APC Federal Government over our rebranding and the renewed popularity of the PDP, which has signaled their inevitable death knell, resorting to outlandish allegations will not help them as Nigerians have since seen through such old-fashioned propaganda and gimmicks.
“We are however not surprised by this diversionary and deceptive approach from the APC government; a government whose officials have since become notorious for dishing out falsehood to Nigerians to cover their incompetence and corrupt tendencies.
“This is the same minister of information, who in a press in conference in Abuja, in 2016, promoted allegations that 55 people stole a total of N1.34 trillion; that 5 former governors stole N146.8 billion; that 4 former ministers stole N7 billion. All these have remained unsubstantiated.
“While we challenge this Government to come clean on the issue of the $1bn Excess Crude money, we also challenge the minister of information to comment on allegations that the APC funded its 2015 presidential campaign with stolen public funds, particularly from Lagos and Rivers states.
“He should also waste no time in commenting on allegations of corruption against their former SGF, Babachir Lawal, the Mainagate and other heavy sleazes going on unabated under the current APC-led administration.”
Meanwhile, Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike has declared that the APC-Federal Government must as a matter of urgency release funds for tackling issues of environmental degradation and security in the Niger Delta.
Governor Wike said while he would not condemn the release of $1billion to tackle Boko Haram, the environmental and security challenges in the Niger Delta far outweigh the Boko Haram conflict.
The governor spoke during the Annual General Meeting of Okpo Club of Nigeria (Association of Ikwerre Lawyers) yesterday in Port Harcourt.
He requested the APC, Federal Government to release the derivation component of the Excess Crude to the oil producing states of the Niger Delta.
He said: “Niger Delta environmental problems are as serious as the Boko Haram Insurgency. I am not saying that you should not fight Boko Haram.
“If you can get funds from the national pool to tackle Boko Haram, then you should go to the pool to get funds to fight environmental problems in Ogoni and other Niger Delta communities.”
Commenting on politics in Rivers State, Governor Wike urged all ethnic nationalities to work together to fast track development in the state.
He said no ethnic nationality in the state could succeed without others, hence the need for greater cooperation at all levels.
The governor also called on the people of the state to always work for relevance in the political terrain of the country so that the state could attract development.
Former NBA President , Chief Onueze Okocha (SAN), commended Governor Wike for his commitment to the development of the state.
He assured him of the support of Ikwerre lawyers as he worked for the people of Rivers State.
Chairman of Okpo Club of Nigeria, Mr Chukwuma Chinwo said the club would continue to mobilise Ikwerre lawyers for the development of the area.
Former Rivers State Governor, Sir Celestine Omehia said the Association of Ikwerre Lawyers had grown over the years to become a catalyst for development.
Highpoint of the occasion was the celebration of the birthday of the Rivers State governor by members of the Association of Ikwerre lawyers.
The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Alhaji Abdulazeez Yari, has reacted to Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, criticism of $1 billion approved by the forum to aid the fight of insurgency in the north east.
He said contrary to Fayose’s reaction it was endorsed by all the governors present because they saw reason, adding that if the Ekiti Governor was present at the meeting, he would have seen the wisdom in the decision.
Fayose, had alleged that the $1 billion to be withdrawn from the Excess Crude Account, and ploughed into the battle with insurgency is a ruse, but money that would rather go for President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaigns for 2019 presidential election.
Fayose in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said: “Since they said they have defeated Boko Haram, what else do they need a whopping sum of $1 billion (over N360 billion) for, if not to fund the 2019 elections? For posterity’s sake, I wish to place it on record that I was not among the governors who approved the withdrawal of almost half of our savings in the Excess Crude Account, which belongs to the three tiers of government to fight an already defeated insurgency,” he declared.
Governor Yari Abubakar said that the issue of drawing from the ECA was very broadly deliberated at the Forum’s meeting on the eve of the National Economic Council meeting where the decision was taken. “If Governor Fayose was there at the meeting, he would have seen the wisdom in the decision. Yes, the administration is claiming to have decimated the insurgents out of Sambisa Forest but they are reemerging in different flashpoints across the country. They need to be tackled wherever they are and the NGF decided to support the Presidency just as it (The Presidency) had been supporting states with their own problems,” Governor Yari Abubakar argued.
The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum who spoke on the phone from Zamfara even contemplates addressing a world press conference on the matter to clear the air, and show how seriously we cherish human lives.
“Governor Fayose is on his own. We have to protect our people and we have to do it with everything we have,” Governor AbdulAziz Yari Abubakar emphasized, adding that “let me reemphasize one more thing, Mr President is a responsible and honest leader who does not believe in money politics and he would never divert public resources into it.”
In the same vein, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has also thrown its weight behind the governors’ decision to withdraw $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account to fight Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East region. The APC-led federal government and the governors who had come under severe attacks from the opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, has in a text message from the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said that the ruling party solidly backs the governors’ decision.
Obviously replying to a text message on the 2019 hidden intent of the fund, the party’s spokesperson said: “The governors have responded. I don’t have anything to add.”
Similarly, the ADP said its attention has been drawn to yet another large-scale corruption being orchestrated by the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government where a whopping sum of N50billion has been discovered in secret accounts contrary to the idea behind the TSA, that all monies generated by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) be remitted into the account.
In a statement signed by the party’s Publicity Secretary, Prince Adelaja Adeoye, the ADP lamented that it took the intervention of an ad-hoc committee of the National Assembly chaired by Hon. Abubakar Danburam-Nuhu from Kano State to discover this huge fraud allegedly approved by the president.
“We have gathered that this directive was implemented by the NNPC GMD, Mr. Maikanti Baru, to have some commercial banks keep money generate from oil revenue accounts outside the TSA. This is in breach of the TSA policy, which provides that all revenues from Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government should be transferred to the TSA.
“The said approval was a memo written by the Chief of Staff to President Buhari, Mr. Abba Kyari, authorizing the NNPC to exclude the said sum from the TSA. Our party is shocked by this unbelievable development.
“Nigerians will recall that the same president moved against our tertiary institutions, ordering them to comply strictly with the TSA policy. We are yet to rationalize the reason for this exclusion or would it be safe to say that the president and his party have started stacking funds to be used for the 2019 general elections?
“We are demanding that President Buhari explain to Nigerians why he gave such an order and for what purpose. It is again shocking that the president repeatedly disregard rules whenever it pleases him, it must be said that a distortion of processes is a serious aspect of corruption.
“The TSA was created to mitigate revenue leakages, but we wonder where all the noise of fighting corruption is coming from, when the evidence points to the contrary. We have also not forgotten the fact that several members of the president’s cabinet such as Babachir Lawal and others are still walking free despite the allegations of corruption running into hundreds of millions still hanging on their necks.
“It is safe to say that President Buhari himself is the supervisor of corruption because his cabinet members and appointees cannot be carrying out these large scale corrupt activities without his knowledge as he has refused to act in the cases of those caught in the act. It is said that birds of a feather flock together.
“Since President Buhari came on board in 2015, Nigeria has not fared better; corruption, hunger, poverty and death have been the hallmark of his maladministration. His continuous failure to transform the economy into a growing one has made Nigeria slide down to becoming the world’s headquarters of poverty and corruption.
“Thousands of Nigerians are falling into the poverty bracket in an alarming rate.
“The ADP as a credible alternative is a party guided by social democratic principles and we will work hard with all stakeholders to continue to hold this government accountable while we make preparations to take over in 2019 so as to make life easy and better for all Nigerians,” the statement added.