The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on
security agencies to immediately launch probe into the voluntary disclosure of
the Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Cooperation (NNPC), Dr.
Mikanti Baru, that 4,501 trucks of petroleum recently went missing.
The PDP, in a statement signed by its Deputy
National Publicity Secretary, Prince Diran Odeyemi, on Tuesday, copies of which were
obtained by journalists yesterday noted that “if trucks of petrol could
suddenly develop wings and could not be traced in the ministry that is directly
being supervised by President Muhammadu Buhari, the signs are rather obvious that
the plundering of the country's commonwealth in ministries, departments and
parastatals are at unimaginable rate.”
The party expressed shock over what it called
"additional means of stealing to finance APC and President Buhari’s
re-election next year in addition to the proposed N1billion daily funding of
Boko Haram which the administration claimed have been technically defeated.”
Baru had disclosed that the trucks laden with
petrol could not be traced when he appeared before Senate Committee probing the
scarcity of the product last week.
Insisting that such disclosure, apart from giving
out Buhari presidency as largely incompetent, also exposed Nigeria as a country
with no security shield, PDP said the missing trucks must have been sold and
the proceeds kept in special coffers being 'fattened' for 2019 elections.
According to the party, the presidency went into
'sleep mode' and caused scarcity of petroleum, thereby exposing Nigerians to
untold hardship, as shortage of petroleum snuffed life out of yuletide
celebrations, adding that only in clime with weak or no government could such
an incidence happen.
The statement read in part: "The PDP is
demanding investigation into Baru's statement that such an embarrassingly huge
number of truck load of petrol, running into several million of litres of
product, which incidentally Nigerian
public suffered and still suffers its scarcity, could disappear without the
government that lay claim to fighting corruption caring a hoot.
"The PDP is asking, where were the relevant security
agencies and bodies saddled with the issues of petroleum products when such a
huge number of trucks vanished into thin air? Is it is not looking like the
ruling party is scooping for money from every available and illegal means to
procure the 2019 general election?
"Security agencies, especially EFCC should not
limit its activities to finding money dumped in the open by unknown persons or
the selective fight against the opposition, the agency should also widen its
scope to establish the veracity of Baru's claim that such numbers of tankers
truly disappeared in a ministry supervised by President Buhari himself who
doubles as the Minister of Petroleum.
"This is one incident too many in the ministry
that recorded an unprecedented fraud last year when the state Minister of Petroleum,
Mr. Ibe Kachukwu, declared that Baru helped himself with the sum of $25 million
that belongs to the country.
"The matter was swept under the carpet. This
is another one. To say the obvious is that the cost of 4,501 truck runs into
several billions of naira. If the tankers travelled through the land or sea
boarders, then those saddled with the responsibilities of manning those places
should be investigated.”
Odeyemi further said: "The disclosure is a
serious indictment on the presidency. From all indications, stealing and
pilfering in this administration is becoming unbearable for Nigerians. We can
imagine what difference the cost of 4,501 trucks of petrol would have done if
injected into the Nigeria economy.
"It is our hope that this incident will not be
swept under the carpet."
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