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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wednesday accused the federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) of diverting attention from corruption allegations.
Addressing a press conference Wednesay in Abuja, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, called on Nigerians to note the blackmails, intimidation and threats coming from government quarters.
He said the aim of the blackmails was to frustrate whistleblowers and truncate ongoing uncovering of widespread corruption in ministries, departments and agencies, under the APC administration.
The PDP said one of such antics by the administration was the Tuesday press conference by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, wherein he challenged Nigerians to dare the federal government in its anti-corruption war.
He said. “Our party is, however, not surprised that this corrupt administration resorted to distortion of facts and daring of citizens when its officials from the top to the bottom are all soiled in the foul pottage of corruption.
“It is ridiculous that this administration seeks to claim credit for the investigation and the unearthing of fraud in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) when it is already public knowledge that the investigation only came as a result of pressure mounted by our party and other Nigerians.”
He explained that this is more so as the corruption in the EFCC has reached an embarrassing crescendo that could no longer be concealed.
According to Ologbondiyan, “such humongous corruption in the EFCC under the APC confirms the level of financial malfeasance and a shameful breach of trust by this administration, in which very top officials of the Buhari’s presidency had been mentioned.
“We challenge the APC-led federal government to give an account of the N800 billion, which Lai Mohammed claimed to have been recovered, especially given allegations that recovered monies have been re-looted and shared among topmost officials of the Buhari’s administration and APC leaders,” he stated.
PDP said rather than resorting to alleged false performance claims, the Buhari administration should have sent Mohammed to apologise for this display of gross abuse of position, especially as it relates to the fight against corruption.
The party urged Nigerians to note that Mohammed, in his press conference, admitted that he could not go into the details of the various corruption issues in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), EFCC and other agencies.
“Our party holds that this is an evasion of gory tales of direct stealing, treasury looting and barefaced embezzlement by government officials and APC leaders as already exposed in ongoing investigations at the National Assembly and at the presidential panel.
“With this shocking suppression of information related to corrupt practices, by no other person than the minister of information, Nigerians and the world at large are no longer in doubt that concealment of corruption in ministries, department and agencies is an official policy of the APC administration because their leaders are involved,” PDP added.
