The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) charges the All Progressives Congress
(APC) to stop lying to Nigerians after its governors have been busted
for diverting N6bn meant for the development of states under their
control to finance their forthcoming national convention.
APC is corrupt. Our investigation reveals that many of the APC governors
are being coerced under the orders of the Presidency and the leadership
of the party to move in huge sums of money in cash into the APC coffers,
bulk of which have already been frittered away by corrupt leaders in the
party and agents of the Presidency.
More saddening is that the money is being pulled from funds derived from
federal bailouts and other monies budgeted for critical development
projects in various communities, many of which have now been stalled,
leaving the people deprived and impoverished.
It is appalling that this is the same party and administration that have
been accusing others of corruption and publishing fabricated ‘looters’
lists’ just to deceive Nigerians and divert public attention from their
sleazes.
We challenge the APC to publish the names of the governors, ministers
and other APC political office holders, who have already brought in
money as well as inform the nation on why they are moving the money in
cash contrary to financial regulations, if the source is not proceeds of
corrupt activities.
Up till now, the APC and President Buhari, even in their self-acclaimed
transparency and integrity, have refused to open up on the source of
funds for their very expensive 2015 presidential campaign, which have
been revealed to have been stolen from states under their control. This
time, they are again coercing governors to steal money meant for
development and payment of salaries to finance their 2019 campaign.
What many Nigerians are yet to know is that the APC actually plans to
rake in a total of N14 billion from government coffers, out of which it
has already planned to procure expensive cars for their national
officers as well as share to their leaders close to President Buhari.
Our inquest shows that the N671 million recently reported to have been
stolen from APC account by some national officers who allegedly moved
the sum to their private accounts is linked to diverted public funds.
There is documentary evidence and the APC has failed to offer
explanations to Nigeria on that.
The APC reeks and is completely guilty as it reasonably ought to have
known that the funds it has been receiving form part of illegal
activities of government officials who have been diverting funds from
states and government agencies, particularly the Nigeria National
Petroleum Corporation and the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to
fund the wasteful lifestyle of their party leaders and the 2019
re-election bid.
On our own part, the reformed and re-branded PDP, as a political party,
remains open and we challenge the APC to declare same.
The APC must end this lame attempt to hide its seething corruption and
make haste to refund the diverted funds.
