Fresh N10bn NHIS Scam: Presidency concealing loot – PDP

..Lampoon FG for saying Nigeria is in safe hands

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Presidency has lost the last iota of honour and integrity after reports that it concealed a N10 billion theft perpetrated by its officials at the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was uncovered

The party further lampooned the Federal Government for telling Nigerians that the country is in safe hands, when the reality on the ground shows that the nation is on auto pilot and drifting to corruption and clueless governance.

The PDP, in a statement issued on Monday, by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said it was shocking that the NHIS money was siphoned through the Federal Government Treasury Single Account
(TSA) in the Central Bank of Nigeria which is under the direct purview of the Presidency.

PDP described it as the height of official hypocrisy for a government that is superintending over illegal withdrawals and outright stealing of funds meant for the welfare of the people yet brashly parading itself as champion of anti-corruption.

The party alleged that the only reasons for the concealment was because the Presidency was complicit, while the stolen fund is being used to service an anti-people cabal brazenly operating in the Buhari-led Presidency.

“Nigerians can now see the level of debauchery associated with this administration. It is appalling that a government can be so depraved that it superintended over the stealing of money meant to provide healthcare for the citizens.

“We challenge the Presidency to speak out on this report as well as similar reported sleazes that has occurred under its watch. Who in the Presidency authorized the withdrawal of the money from the TSA and who are the beneficiaries thereof?

“Until and unless the Presidency clears its name by investigating, exposing and prosecuting those involved, it must directly be held responsible for this wicked act against Nigerians, who daily suffer hunger, depravation and death owing to the corruption in the APC
government.

“We hereby invite Nigerians and the international community to also note
the refusal of the Buhari Presidency to act on the leaked memo showing corrupt oil contracts at the NNPC to the tune of N9 trillion ($25billion dollars) in a sector under President Buhari’s direct supervision as Minister of Petroleum.

“The Presidency has also failed to offer explanations on the alleged involvement of its officials in various sneaky oil subsidy deals as well as reported diversion of N1.1trillion worth of crude last year to service APC interests.

“Nigerians are aware that the Presidency has continued to shield fraudulent cabinet ministers including those known for extorting funds from agencies under them in addition to those indicted for corrupt enrichment” PDP stated.

PDP in a related development expressed shock that the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, could in far away France state that Nigeria is in safe hands while it is obvious that Nigerians are agonizing under the tragedies of economic and security problems inflicted on them by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government

PDP is of the view that the minister is either economical with the truth, had lost touch with reality or just trying to play with words to please the incompetent Buhari Presidency or its crisis-ridden party, All Progressives Congress (APC).

The party said it sympathizes with the minister of information in his job of trying to launder the image of a failed and rejected government but added that he should not incur the opprobrium of Nigerians in the course of performing this onerous task.

“If a minister of information who ought to give the correct state of affairs can announce that a government which collapsed the nation’s once robust economy and plagued it with violence, ethnic division and political tension, is indeed a safe hand, then our nation is in much more trouble under the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“How can anybody say that the same Presidency whose incompetence and bad policies are directly responsible for the unabated killings, massive unemployment and job losses, collapse of businesses and even the lingering fuel crisis which has brought untold hardship in the land is indeed a safe hand?

“This is a government under whose watch the nation has become heavily polarized along dangerous fault lines and where citizens now live in fear and mutual suspicion; where citizens are slaughtered by the day by marauders; where hunger and strange diseases ravage the people due to its bad policies” the party stated.

PDP maintained that the reasonable take-away from the statement of the information minister is that this government has come to its wits end and has no solution for the troubles it caused the nation.