…Charges APC to commence refund of stolen N15tr
By Emma Ogbuehi
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has explained the 2020 corruption index report on Nigeria by Transparency International (TI), as further confirmation that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government is a citadel of corruption and the most corrupt administration in the history of Nigeria.
The PDP asserts that the TI report, which shows Nigeria plunging to 149th on the corruption perception index in 2020 – a drop to 13 places since 2015, is a confirmation that the nation is more corrupt under President Buhari and the APC, than it was in 2015 when they took office.
“This descent into the abyss of corruption only goes to show that President Buhari’s anti-corruption stance is a mere swindle used to delude Nigerians while the vaults were laid open for APC leaders and officials of the Buhari administration to plunder. Indeed, the record of unbroken decline from 136th in 2016 to 144th in 2018, 146th in 2019 and now 149th in 2020, under President Buhari, the
African Union (AU) Anti-Corruption Champion’, settles the now notorious fact that the Buhari administration and the APC are titleholders in corruption, PDP argued in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan.
It criticized the APC for stimulating a holier-than-thou attitude and deploying the instrument of propaganda on coming to power, to deliberately castigate the PDP with false corruption allegations just to divert public attention and create a safe atmosphere for its leaders to loot the nation dry.
“The fact remains that no matter how lies and falsehood try to prevail, the truth will always come to light at the end of the day. From the oil and inland revenue sectors to security, health, agriculture, food security, healthcare, transportation, road infrastructure, power, education, environment, among other critical sectors, none was spared from the kleptomaniac fingers of corrupt APC
leaders and the cabal in the Presidency”, the statement further alleged.
It invited Nigerians to take note of its alert on the allegation of the stealing of over N15 trillion by APC leaders and political cronies in the Presidency, insisting that it was not just an opposition propaganda but a patriotic stance which the APC and its administration has not been able to counter.
The release added that “the Buhari administration has failed to go after APC leaders and cronies allegedly involved in the stealing of over N9.6 trillion as detailed in a leaked NNPC memo, the over N3trillion in fraudulent oil subsidy regime as well as trillions stolen from agencies including, the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) the National Emergency Management Agency
(NEMA), the National Health Insurance Scheme, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the Social Investment Programme as revealed by First Lady, Aisha Buhari, the COVID-19 funds among a litany of frauds”.
It added that the financial rot in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) under the Buhari administration, including stealing of recovered funds, underscores the level of corruption under the APC.
PDP stressed that now that the Buhari-led APC administration has been further exposed, it charges Nigerians to join in the demand for the APC, as a party, to commence the processes of refunding the N15 trillion stolen by its leaders before exiting the political firmament in 2023.
