The Federal Government is trying to cover a \u201chuge fraud in the presidency by declaring it spends N24 billion monthly (N774 million per day) to subsidise fuel in the country,\u201d the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged.
\nThe party described the figure as \u201cfictitious and cleverly fabricated to retire the already exposed stealing of trillions of naira by the presidency cabal and All Progressives Congress (APC) interests in secret oil deals.\u201d
\nPDP\u2019s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement, yesterday, said: \u201cIt is duplicitous for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to claim a sudden surge in fuel purchase expenses at the same time the nation faced the harshest fuel shortage across the country, with Nigerians paying exorbitantly for the product.\u201d
\nAccording to the PDP, \u201cThe APC-led presidency is drawing its deceptive proclivity and concealment of fraud too far. And to think that such is hatched in a sector that is under the direct supervision of President Muhammadu Buhari as Minister of Petroleum Resources is most disheartening.
\n\u201cThis is the same presidency that claimed to have abolished fuel subsidy payments and even accused the immediate past administration of alleged corruption in its subsidy management. It is, therefore, strange that the same government can pull out unimaginable figures and claim it is the cost of subsidy enjoyed by Nigerians.\u201d
\nThe party further queried: \u201cHow come that with such humongous sums, Nigerians are still paying as high as N250 to N300 per litre on fuel in various parts of the country? We have since charged the Buhari-led presidency to come out clear on the administration of subsidy under its watch. The question is, why is the Federal Government cloaking the subsidy regime in secrecy, if not to conceal its duplicity?\u201d
\nThe PDP said: \u201cNigerians need to know who in the presidency approved the spending of the said N774 million per day as fuel subsidy and who the benefiting companies are. Is the subsidy captured in any appropriation instrument of the National Assembly? What is the cost of landing imported fuel to the depots and at what exchange rate? Where are the details of the subsidy payout and the negotiating options and contracts?
\n\u201cIn reeling out its figures, the presidency has forgotten that Nigerians are still waiting for its explanations on the leaked memo showing alleged corrupt oil contracts at the NNPC to the tune of N9 trillion ($25 billion dollars). The presidency has also refused to offer explanations on the alleged involvement of its officials in various sneaky oil subsidy deals and reported diversion of N1.1 trillion worth of crude, last year, to service APC interests.\u201d
\nAs if finally out with a solution to fuel importation and the attendant subsidy payments, the NNPC has said it is targeting the reduction of capital flight in procurement and cost of producing a barrel of crude oil.
\nSpeaking in Abuja, yesterday, NNPC\u2019s Group Managing Director (GMD), Maikanti Baru said the corporation is working smart to bring more money into the coffers of the federation.
\n\u201cThe more we bring down the cost of producing oil and gas, the more money we bring into the pockets of federal, state and local governments. We are driving the Nigerian content agenda to essentially bring down cost. We have brought down the cost of production of a barrel of oil to about $20. Our target is $15. And we will continue to march towards that,\u201d Baru said.
\nThe GMD, who was represented at the 2018 edition of Technology and Innovation Expo by Chief Operating Officer, Gas and Power, Saidu Mohammed disclosed that the corporation has domesticated engineering, procurement, construction and most of the major activities in the oil and gas industry.
\nHe said: \u201cWe have collaborated with the Nigerian Content Development Board. We have also got Nigerians who are innovative to go into fabrication. What we want to do is make sure that we domesticate the big chunk of where we spend the money, which is procurement. We have fabrications going on. We have also gone into the fabrication of vessels. What we are doing is to support all sorts of innovation.\u201d
\nCommenting on the Ajaokuta-Kaduna and Kano pipeline project, the GMD said the pipelines were fully domesticated in accordance with the local content policy of the Federal Government. He added that Nigerians would do all the pre-commissioning and commissioning services.
\nMeanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has decried what it described as the continuous harassment, arrests and detention of its members in various parts of the country by agents and officials of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-controlled Federal Government, calling on the international community to intervene. The party said its members in Edo, Rivers, Kaduna, Kogi, Borno, Adamawa and other parts of the country are being hounded by the ruling party just because its members spoke against the despotic tendency of the APC government.
\nIn a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan yesterday, the party said the lives of its members and supporters \u201care increasingly at risk as the government is becoming more intolerant of opposition, particularly, having realized that its chances of getting re-elected in 2019 has dimmed as the people have rejected it due to its abysmal performance in the nearly three years of misrule.\u201d
\nPDP also said Nigerians now live in fear as the APC-led government frequently violates their fundamental human rights and also uses aggression and cruelty to stifle opposition voices in the country.
\nIt however called on \u201call good-spirited Nigerians and the international community to stand up and condemn\u201d what it described as the undemocratic acts, rights violation and corruptions perpetrated by the APC government. The statement said,\u201d
\nThe PDP is alerting the entire world of the increasing aggression and cruelty against opposition members and perceived opponents of government by the APC-led Federal Government, which is now using the apparatus of state power in their desperation to cow and subjugate opposition, suppress constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech and association in our country.
\n\u201cToday, there is thoughtless abuse of human rights in our country and the people now live in fear. Opposition members are now being arrested, manhandled and detained, with some of them having their family houses demolished for holding and expressing opinion even under a democracy.
\n\u201cCurrently, our members and supporters in many states including Edo, Rivers, Kaduna, Kogi, Borno, Adamawa and others are being hounded for expressing opinion, particularity on the exposed corruption, abuses, constitutional violations and incompetence of the APC administration.
\n\u201cAs we speak, our Edo state Chairman, Chief Dan Orbih, was summoned, questioned and his personal freedom curtailed by the police in Edo state for daring to speak against corruption in the state, an action which the unscrupulous officers at the command boasted will teach him and PDP members in the state, a lesson.
\nWe commend Chief Dan Orbih for his forthrightness even in the face of harassments and intimidation by the APC. \u201cIn Kogi state, there are reports of APC agents attacking and destroying property belonging to opposition members and supporters.
\nNigerians have not forgotten how the APC government in Kaduna state demolished property belonging to opposition members and perceived political opponents; how the PDP secretariat in Borno was destroyed and how our property and those of our supporters were destroyed by agents of government in Adamawa state.
\n\u201cWe decry this raging intimidation of our party officials, members and supporters and call on all good-spirited Nigerians and the international community to stand up and condemn this drift towards a stone age despotism.
\n\u201cNigeria is a democratic state and we reject any attempt by anybody to suppress the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the people, particularly regarding the choice of how they can be governed.
\n\u201cThe APC has failed and should not be allowed to vent its frustration on innocent Nigerians,\u201d the statement concluded
\nSimilarly, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said a recent statement made by President Muhammadu Buhari during a visit to Taraba state, where he compared the number of deaths through killings in affected states, was not only morbid but ill-thought.
\nIt also said the President\u2019s planned visits to states affected by bloodletting and violence was an after-thought and not altruistic.
\nThe President last Monday visited Taraba state to condole with those affected by recent violence caused by herdsmen\/farmers clashes.
\nIn Taraba, Mr. Buhari hit the nerves of many critics when he said the number of persons killed in violent clashes in Mambilla Plateau, Sardauna Local Government Area of Taraba State, was more than \u201cthose killed in Zamfara and Benue States combined\u201d.
\nThe PDP said the \u201cill-thought remark\u201d has vindicated its position that the scheduled trips to states \u201cwhere Nigerians are being killed by marauders is cosmetic and a political afterthought that did not come from Mr. Buhari\u2019s heart\u201d.
\nThe party in a statement yesterday by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, expressed disbelief at the president\u2019s dismissal of public criticism over his delay in visiting the troubled areas.
\n\u201cNigerians wondered why President Buhari did not put figures to the tally since what appears to be of interest is the morbid comparison of how many Nigerians were killed from state to state.
\n\u201cThe party is however not surprised by President Buhari\u2019s comments as well as the failure to visit the victims to directly assure them as the APC-controlled Federal Government had always exhibited thoughtless disdain towards the feelings and well being of the masses.
\n\u201cWhen well-meaning Nigerians said the visits were cosmetic and a political gambit, some apologists of the APC dismissed it as a mere political statement. Now, the action and comments by the President during his whistle stop visit to Taraba state have bared it all.\u201d
\nThe party also flayed the president for \u201cnot directly visiting the families affected\u201d during his visit to Taraba.
\n\u201cNot only that our dear President holed himself in the comfort of the Taraba State Government House for a brief meeting with few government officials, he did not visit the victims to directly commiserate and allay their fears with assurances of steps to ensure justice and end the carnage, as his allusions almost re-opened old wounds.
\n\u201cIs it not surprising that the same president who, last Saturday, had all the time at a wedding ceremony in Kano state did not even spare a minute to visit victims of a carnage where a soothing word from him would have been the balm for justice and peace?
\n\u201cFurthermore, the President\u2019s declaration that Nigerians should not expect him to \u201calways go out to the field\u201d not only negates his promise to lead from the fronts, but also shows that he has become distant from the real feelings, demands and sensibilities of the people.
\n\u201cAlso, Nigerians were shocked by the President\u2019s claims of having performed in providing security in the country, even in the face of the daily bloodletting in the land. Perhaps, he was not aware, as usual, that while he was in Taraba, marauders were having a field day slaughtering women and children in neighboring Benue state.
\n\u201cIt is clear to all that this Presidential roadshow serves no purpose to the people, but merely designed as a gambit to score cheap political point and falsely portray the administration as caring, particularly seeing that the 2019 election is around the corner.\u201d
\n\u201cThe party is however not surprised by President Buhari\u2019s comments as well as the failure to visit the victims to directly assure them as the APC-controlled Federal Government had always exhibited thoughtless disdain towards the feelings and well being of the masses.
\n\u201cWhen well-meaning Nigerians said the visits were cosmetic and a political gambit, some apologists of the APC dismissed it as a mere political statement. Now, the action and comments by the President during his whistle stop visit to Taraba state have bared it all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Federal Government is trying to cover a \u201chuge fraud in the presidency by declaring it spends N24 billion monthly (N774 million per day) to subsidise fuel in the country,\u201d the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged. The party described the figure as \u201cfictitious and cleverly fabricated to retire the already exposed stealing of trillions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":171111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-171106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-front-pix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=171106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/171111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=171106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=171106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=171106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}