We did not squander $500bn, PDP tells Buhari
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has faulted the claim by President Muhammadu Buhari that PDP squandered the sum of $500bn oil proceeds within 16 years, describing it as baseless, unfounded, and unsubstantiated.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement on Tuesday, in Abuja said the figures alluded to by the President does not even tally or reflect the actual oil related profile of the nation during the said period and urged the President not to allow his handlers set him up for public ridicule.
The party said, “The entire country is aware that the Presidency is on a feverish mode over their bound-to-fail 2019 re-election bid for which they have resorted to making spurious claims against the PDP even when it is clear to Nigerians that the PDP has since rebranded while preponderance of those who mismanaged the nation’s resources have now found a safe haven in the Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC).”
The party however challenged President Buhari to name one corrupt person in the repositioned and rebranded PDP and it will hand him a list of an army of corrupt persons who are hiding in his APC including those who
funded his 2015 presidential campaigns with stolen money in addition to his many cronies who are now frittering away billion of naira under his watch.
PDP claimed that President Buhari did not source the figures himself, otherwise the party would have directly taken him to task on the veracity of his claims and detestable image of his party.
The party wondered if the President and his handlers are not aware of the homogenous corruption going on under the Buhari Presidency, the Transparency International (TI) report which shows that corruption has worsened under the Buhari administration, the official memo detailing shady oil deals to
the tune of N9 trillion ($25 billion) at the NNPC which is directly under the purview of the President as minister of Petroleum resources.
The party accused the Presidency of being accomplice to the heavy sleaze in the National Health Insurance Scheme where billions of naira have allegedly been siphoned by their agents, in spite of the Treasury Single
Account (TSA), the alleged diversion of N1.1 trillion worth of crude oil and the frittering of billions of naira meant for rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Persons in the northeast.
The party faulted the President’s claim that Buhari’s administration inherited a collapsing economy adding that it is common knowledge that he actually inherited a thriving economy, ranked the third largest in Africa and one of the fastest growing in the world.
The party reminded the President that when he assumed office in 2015, the value of the naira was N185 to 1USD while it is went as low as N510 to 1USD under the present administration.
PDP urge President Buhari and his dysfunctional APC to come to terms with the fact that Nigerians now know the truth and can no longer be swayed by propaganda and false claims with which the APC hoodwinked the nation in 2015.
