By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The All Progressives Congress has fired at former vice president Atiku Abubakar and the People Democratic Party for questioning the loan agreements the federal government signed with the Chinese government.
The House of Representatives has said that some of the loan agreements, save for military and diplomatic assets, conceded Nigeria’s sovereignty to China in the event of default.
Atiku and the PDP have chastised the federal government for entering such agreements which they said mortgaged the future of Nigeria’s unborn generation.
But the APC said Atiku and the PDP got the whole thing wrong.
“The statement issued by the Media Office of former Vice President, Alh. Atiku Abubakar on the standard sovereign guarantee and sovereign immunity clause embedded in Nigeria’s loan agreements with China to fund the ongoing national railway projects is unresearched, unintelligent and pedestrian.
|”As the Minister for Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has explained the guarantee/clause in the loan deals is standard irrespective of the the country granting the loan.
“Perhaps, Atiku and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could redirect their energies to explaining to Nigerians the status of the failed $460 million Abuja Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) awarded in August 2010 by the immediate-past PDP administration.
“Also, they should explain the over $2billion China loan the PDP administration took between 2010 and 2013 alone; $16billion spent on power with no electricity; fuel subsidy rackets; counter-insurgency funds that were diverted and shared to political cronies among other shocking heists.
“Recall that the failed CCTV installation project was initiated by late President Umaru Yar’Adua and awarded in August 2010 by former President, Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to help security agencies in the Federal Capital Territory check the growing insecurity.
“Since the agreement became signed, Nigeria has been servicing this loan to China while Nigerians are yet to attest to the visibility of CCTV project and unable to explain the status of the video surveillance project. The matter is subject to a legislative probe.
“In all of these we are starkly reminded that the PDP remains a corrupted and damaged product. Nigerians must continue to reject the party at all levels of government.
“In the area of fiscal discipline, prudence, curbing leakages, are we currently getting it right? An emphatic yes! Every kobo expended on infrastructure counts. Verifiable evidence abound in the fast expanding national railway projects, airport remodelling among other critical infrastructure projects being undertaken by the President Muhammadu Buhari government.
“The days of phoney contracts as institutionalised by successive PDP administrations are fast fading,” the APC said through its deputy national publicity secretary, Yekini Nabena.
