Press Conference By The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Monday, August 6, 2018, at the PDP National Secretariat, Abuja.
Gentlemen of the press, we have called you up today to, through you raise serious posers for which we demand immediate response from President Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC), whose administration has scammed Nigerians and the international community in the last three years.
President Buhari and his APC deceived Nigerians to secure power on the promise of transparency, accountability and zero tolerance for corruption. Little did Nigerians then realize that they had boarded a “one chance bus” driven by vicious and vengeful liars, scammers and a falsehearted and heavily corrupt leaders, parading as saints and messiahs.
The Buhari Presidency and the APC-led Federal Government have been doing all to divert public attention from their ocean of corruption and primitive stealing including launching a brutal attack on the opposition, hounding innocent Nigerians for no just cause and seizing the airwaves to brand everybody else as corrupt, while underneath they shamelessly pillage our nation’s resources, stealing money in trillion, under President Buhari’s official cover.
Today, the Buhari Presidency has been busted. Today, the very leader, who hitherto paraded as pro-poor and saintly has now been exposed to be at the head of the most corrupt administration that our nation ever had since independence.
If President Buhari and his Presidency are not corrupt; if the APC is not a party of corruption, the PDP challenges them to address Nigerians on their complicit in the exposed acts of humongous corruption thriving in the high places under their watch.
*The PDP challenges President Buhari to explain why his anti-corruption fight has not been extended to investigate the corruption from the leaked memo detailing alleged underhand oil contracts to the tune of N9 trillion ($25billion dollars) at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, which are under the direct supervision President Buhari as Minister of Petroleum Resources. Why has investigation into this scam been suppressed?
*The PDP challenges President Buhari to explain to Nigerians whose interest he is protecting by refusing to allow an independent inquest into the alleged corruption in the handling of the N1.4 trillion oil subsidy regime allegedly involving officials at the Presidency, particularly those benefiting from alleged N58 hidden tax per liter which Nigerians have continued to bear since the fuel price increased from PDP subsidized cost of N87 to presumably unsubsidized cost of N145.
*The PDP challenges President Buhari and the APC to explain whose interests they are protecting by suppressing investigation into the alleged use of 18 unregistered companies to lift and divert N1.1 trillion worth of crude oil in 2017. Who are the owners of these companies? Are the companies linked to President Buhari or any of his relatives or even APC leaders?
*Furthermore, the PDP challenges the Buhari Presidency and the APC to explain to the world why his anti-corruption fight has not been extended to the internationally reported diversion and alleged stealing of N18 billion out of the N48 billion approved by the National Assembly for the rehabilitation of millions of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and rebuilding of six northeast states ravaged by insurgency in the 2017 budget.
Can the Buhari Presidency and APC claim to be unaware of the damning report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), a public document which detailed how officials were using bulk of the resources meant for the IDPs on contracts that were found to have immensely benefitted officials of the APC Government including the sacked Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal?
Can the Presidency and the APC claim to be unaware of the motion by Senator Baba Kaka Garba from Borno Central, who exposed how persons, known to have connections with the APC, fraudulently cornered N1.2 billion from the Federal Government under the guise of supplying items to IDPs?
*The PDP challenges the Presidency to explain why his ‘famed’ anti-corruption dragnet has not been cast on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) despite widely reports of alleged stealing of over N25 billion meant for the health need of the people from the account of the Scheme in the Treasury Single Account (TSA) by APC agents.
Can President Buhari, the African Union anti-corruption champion, explain why his Presidency recalled and reinstated the indicted Executive Secretary of the Scheme, Prof. Usman Yakubu, while he was still being quizzed by the EFCC for alleged corruption?
*The PDP and Nigerians would also want President Buhari to explain why his anti-corruption crusade has not been directed to the discovery of unremitted revenue from sale of crude by the NNPC under his watch as well as the undisclosure of revenue accruable to states for which there have been deadlock at the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC). Why are these areas immune from the anti-corruption fight or are the interests at the highest places involved in the messy deals.
*Moreover, it is a settled saying that birds of the same feathers flock together. The fact that President Buhari comfortably surrounds himself with persons indicted for corruption, sundry frauds, common scams as well as forgeries is very revealing on the phoniness of his administration’s fight against corruption.
*President Buhari has no other explanation for engaging and rewarding corrupt individuals as ministers, including a certain individual whose state’s judicial panel of inquiry had in 2015 issued a government white paper indicting him of looting over N90 billion through alleged illegal sale of the assets belonging to the state. After all, the said white paper further alleged that N40 billion out of the looted N90 billion was diverted for APC’s 2015 Presidential campaigns.
*It is no longer news that one Obono-Obla, President Buhari’s Special Assistant on Prosecution and Chairman, Special Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property in Buhari’s anti-corruption team has been indicted for forging his WAEC certificate, yet his boss, Mr. Integrity has refused to investigate him.
*The same goes for Buhari’s Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, who has been accused of dodging her compulsory national service and allegedly forged the NYSC Exemption Certificate. Despite her inability to deny the allegation, she is still the minister of finance under Mr. Clean.
Currently, the Buhari Presidency in its corrupt proclivity is seeking to force the reopening of the Senate contrary to Section 12 of the Senate Standing Rules for which the Presidency and the APC are offering lawmakers from both chambers an inducement of the sum of $1 million each with the aim of impeaching Senate President Bukola Saraki and Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu.
The PDP has been informed that one of the heads of the security agencies is the arrow head of the Buhari Presidency’s agents charged to coordinate this heinous design, which has the unlimited capacity to throw our nation into anarchy and ultimately destroy our hard-earned democracy.
The question today is, where is President Buhari’s fight against corruption?
The APC and Buhari Presidency has turned Nigeria into their cash cow while manipulating our laws and rules to favour their selfish designs.
However, the PDP restates a commitment to the Nigerian people to expose the Buhari administration and fight for the unity, stability, indivisibly and prosperity of our dear nation.
Nigeria belongs to all of us and nobody, no matter how highly placed has the right to continue to subvert our laws, beguile, intimidate or even attempt to subjugate our citizens at any time.
Thank you
Kola Ologbodiyan,
National Publicity Secretary,
PDP National Secretariat, Abuja
August 6, 2018
