$25BN(N9 TRN) STOLEN TO PROSECUTE MUHAMMADU BUHARI’S SECOND TERM BID – PDP

ABUJA, Nigeria – Nigeria’s major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) has alleged that all ongoing theft, including the $25 billion(about N9 trn) unapproved contract awards which has rocked the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC) were done to secure funds to prosecute President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term bid.

The party made the allegation in a statement issued by Publicity Secretary of the party, Prince Dayo Adeyeye.

“Will it be considered a hate speech, if we say the money being stolen by President Buhari’s men are being kept aside into a special pool for the prosecution of his second term ambition”, the party queried, and challenged the president to prove the PDP wrong “by allowing his allies being caught up in the act of brazen stealing of our commonwealth get punished in accordance with the laws of the land. Anything aside this, we take as confirmation of our suspicion that the rottingness is from the very top”, the party said.

The PDP said its suspicion is reinforced by the unfolding event that powerful people at the corridors of power are tacitly involved in the scam.

“If the president’s powerful Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari could sit on the NNPC and such a calamity is taking place without an eyelid being blinked, we are forced to believe that the stealing is being done to the advantage of the president who has shown by his body language that the only thing that matter most to him for now is his second term ambition”, the party said.

PDP demands the president to order the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru to proceed on leave to allow for thorough investigation of the matter.

The party said it is appalled by the silence of the President who has pride itself as an anticorruption Czar on the matter.

“The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, wishes to express our shock at the loud silence of President Muhammadu Buhari on the alleged insubordination and other illegalities currently being exposed at the nation’s cash cow, the NNPC, in which two of his henchmen, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu and the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru, are the dramatis personae.

“As a political party, we expect that the President, who prides himself as an indefatigable corruption fighter, would for once try to live above board, by genuinely allowing one of his own, accused of insubordination and subversion of due process, get properly investigated and prosecuted as a show of his impartiality in the war against corruption.

“He should do this to correct the open impression Nigerians have about his so-called anti-corruption war; that it’s just a tool of persecution of perceived enemies,’’ the party said and warned against any official cover up, adding that Baru’s alleged misdeeds must be probed to prove his innocence or otherwise.

“We view the allegations levelled against Baru by Kachikwu as too grave to be swept under the carpet and we insist that the NNPC GMD must be treated like an accused who should not have the opportunity to influence investigation into his alleged misdeeds.

“Ordinarily, if there was sincerity in the anti-corruption war, President Muhammadu Buhari should not have waited for any prompting before he takes a decisive action on this matter, but as customary with his administration, we suspect that he’s trying to shield Baru as he did for Babachir Lawal, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, who he merely suspended to allow the hullabaloo generated by the fraud perpetrated in the management of the emergency fund for the IDPs, die down. ‘

“Also up till now, we have never heard anything again about the millions of dollars and billions of naira discovered at an Ikoyi apartment. We have been saying this for months that the diversion of the nation’s resources under this administration is record setting in the history of this nation and we are being proven right on daily basis by the little revelations that are being made by even those working under the administration.

“We wonder what the stench will be when the real and hidden atrocities being perpetrated under the watch of President Buhari are finally exposed when Nigerians throw the APC government out of power in 2019.

“The sum of $25 Billion said to have been the subject of the latest controversy, when converted to naira is about N9 Trillion, a sum that is bigger than the nation’s annual budget.

“Much as we commend the National Assembly for indicating interest in probing the allegations against the NNPC GMD as approved in the adoption of the motion moved by Senator Samuel Anyanwu at Wednesday’s plenary, we wish to appeal to the leadership of the Senate to prevail on the Ad-hoc committee set up for the purpose of the investigation, to make their sitting open to all Nigerians so that nothing will be surreptitiously swept under the carpet,” the party said.