The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday
challenged the President Muhammadu Buhari government to lead by example by
publishing details of its spending and financial transactions as an impetus to
enforce its financial reporting directives on Ministries, Departments and
Agencies (MDAs).
The main opposition party also called on the All
Progressives Congress (APC) to come clean on revelations in the public space that
the N40 billion taxpayers’ money allegedly siphoned from the Federal Inland
Revenue Service (FIRS) was used to finance its 2019 election campaigns.
But in a swift response, the APC described the
statement from the PDP alleging that the sum of N40 billion was released to the
party by the FIRS to prosecute the 2019 election political campaigns as hogwash
and baseless.
The PDP in a statement issued by the National
Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, also tasked the presidency to
publish details, including the beneficiaries, the purpose and the amount of
each payment, in line with the presidential directive to the MDAs.
The PDP said it is not enough for Buhari to issue
spending directives to MDAs without his presidency, which received billions of
naira in budgetary allocation, leading by example.
According to the PDP, "Nigerians deserve to know
how much is allocated to the presidency; the various expenditure subheads,
process of award of contracts, the contractors, the beneficiaries, amounts paid
and the payment system.
"Perhaps such would explain why certain
individuals who are close to the presidency live in ostentatious opulence and
flaunt very expensive lifestyle in the same country where millions of citizens
wallow in abject poverty, hunger, homelessness and disease."
The party noted that it is worrisome that the Buhari
presidency has failed to make details of its yearly budget and expenditure
public, despite several demands for openness, a situation which has raised
anxieties and allegations of huge sleazes and corrupt concealments against
certain officials and cabal in the presidency.
The PDP alleged in the statement that there are several
‘ugly scenarios around the presidency, including the arrest in October of a
suspected scammer, Abdulrauf Illyasu’, who even enjoyed an office accommodation
within the safety and cover of the presidential villa.
This, the party said, was in addition to the arrest
of a said confidant of the president, Nasir Danu, at Heathrow Airport, United
Kingdom, for alleged international passport scam and money laundering while
allegedly ferrying currencies for persons said to be close to the presidency.
Meanwhile, the PDP has called on the APC to come
clean on revelations in the public that the N40 billion taxpayers’ money
allegedly siphoned from the FIRS was used to finance its 2019 election campaigns.
The party said in a statement by Ologbondiyan that
the revelation, which has reportedly unsettled certain persons in the Buhari presidency,
has further exposed the APC as a decadent lot and a gathering of treasury
looters who thrive in cheating and deceit at a very high level.
The PDP called on Nigerians to note how the APC and
its federal government have failed to account for various pillaging of public
funds in the Buhari administration, including the N14 trillion stolen through
various phony contracts in the NNPC as well as direct drawings from other
government agencies such as the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
It further said if the trillions of naira stolen
and stashed away in private purses of APC leaders are recovered and directed to
development projects, the country would
not be in its present sorry state orchestrated by the Buhari administration.
Meanwhile, the APC
has described the statement from the PDP alleging that the sum of N40
billion was released to the party by the FIRS to prosecute the 2019 election
political campaigns as hogwash and baseless.
The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mallam
Lanre Issa-Onilu, in a statement issued yesterday, said the matter of dipping
hands into public coffers as a matter of official policy ended with PDP.
The ruling party recalled that leaders of the PDP
had contemplated changing the name of the party at a time because they were
ashamed of their own record of sleaze.
Issa-Onilu said: "The baseless allegations
contained in the media reports and the subsequent statement by the PDP is an
unintelligent and crude attempt at a smear campaign. Only the sponsors of the
report believe their tales.
"We call on the sponsors of the baseless
allegation to resolve their confusion. Last time it was N90 billion, now it is
N40billion. We also challenge them to provide evidence from not only FIRS but
any other government agency where the APC took one kobo for campaign.”
The party in a separate statement yesterday said the
National Working Committee (NWC) observed
a minute silence was observed in honour of late Idde, who was until his
death, the Board Chairman of the Lower Niger River Basin Development Authority.
APC said it has sent a delegation to his family to deliver
the party's condolences.
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