PDP Alleges Plot to Loot $311m Abacha Repatriated Fund

 

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday said it has uncovered fresh plots by the cabal in the presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to use fake subheads and duplicated projects as ploy to re-loot the recently repatriated Sani Abacha looted $311millon.

The party signaled that the cabal had perfected the use of fake subheads as nomenclatures to mislead those who repatriated the fund and pave way to corner the money to their private pockets as they had done with earlier repatriated funds.

The PDP in a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, alleged that part of the strategy of the cabal is to hype hazy subheads and stampedes the dissipation of the funds without the statutory approval of the National Assembly, which would enable them to muddle up accountability processes, conceal their fraud and divert the attention of the unsuspecting public from the scam.

According to the main opposition party, “The fraudulent dissipation of the funds will then be followed with false performance claims as well as blackmailing and intimidation of Nigerians demanding both transparency and accountability in the handling of the money.”

The PDP noted that such had become the standard ruse by the cabal and APC leaders, who also looted the earlier repatriated $322 million under the guise of sharing money to the poor in 19 states, and had no answers to allegations that more than 90 percent of the 300,000 households listed as beneficiaries were phony family names.

Nigerians, it said, would recall how the claims of the APC government was rubbished by the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, who had alerted the country that the N500 billion Social Investment Programme of the Buhari administration was hugely shrouded in corruption and that bulk of the money did not get to the poor and vulnerable.

Furthermore, the party noted that the federal government had failed to publish the details of the alleged APC leaders who own the consulting firms that was allegedly paid billions of naira up front as consultancy fee for the ‘sharing’ of the money, which was not also passed through the constitutionally required approval of the National Assembly.

The APC-led federal government, PDP said, “had also failed to account for the $308 million repatriated in February for which it cannot point to any project, but rather faced with allegations of unbridled looting by the cabal and certain APC leaders, including those exposed to be receiving huge percentages from repatriated funds.”

The PDP, therefore, urged Nigerians to note that the APC government had remained silent on the report by the United States Department of State that the Nigerian Government plots to funnel this repatriated money to certain individuals connected to the APC.

PDP added that the report had exposed that the federal government was even in the process of funneling $100 million of the funds to Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Bagudu; the chairman of APC Governors’ Forum, who was reportedly indicted by the US for allegedly helping in transferring billions of dollar out of the country during the military era.

It said it is also strange that the federal government is keeping an ominous silence on how much, in line with its style, would be farmed out to vested interests as legal fees on the repatriated funds.

The PDP, therefore, counseled that this repatriated $311 million should be safeguarded from the antics of the APC cabal.

"Our party demands that the fund should be surrendered to the National Assembly for proper statutory appropriation, and urge Nigerians to resist schemes by the cabal to prevent them from demanding explanations on the looting of repatriated funds," the party said.