The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said a whopping N10 trillion has been frittered away from the national treasury since the All Progressives Congress (APC) came to office three years ago.

The breakdown of this amount, according to the party, include the alleged $25 billion (about N9 trillion) oil contracts at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, and $3.5 billion (about N1.1 trillion) worth of crude oil allegedly stolen by APC interests operating with seven ghost companies. PDP, in a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, also alleged massive looting from the Treasury Single Account (TSA), particularly the reported N10 billion missing from National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS)’s account in the TSA, as well as the frittering of fresh N25 billion under questionable ‘deals.’

“The APC and presidency have been playing saint and pointing fingers while their officials are having field day frittering trillions of naira to finance their opulent lifestyles and political interests, even under the watch of the African Union (AU) Anti-Corruption Champion,” the statement added.

The party also demanded explanations from the APC-led Federal Government “on the widely reported stealing of N18 billion Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) intervention fund as well as the source of the N671 million allegedly stolen from the APC account by some of its national officers. “Furthermore, the PDP wants the presidency and the APC to explain to Nigerians why no serious panel of enquiry has been set up to address the issues of abuse of rights, extra-judicial executions, killings and bloodletting in various parts of the country as catalogued by various international bodies.”

The statement observed that the APC has become synonymous with violence, deceit, hardship, hunger and starvation and could no longer be trusted as a vehicle of national cohesion, economic prosperity and the unity of Nigerians.

Meanwhile, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said that the Federal Government is paying lip-service to the spate of insecurity in the country. Atiku in a message to Nigerians yesterday to mark this year’s Democracy Day noted that instead of tackling the problem head-on, the Federal Government has been making contradictory and ridiculous excuses and engaging in diversionary finger-pointing.

The former vice president regretted that Nigeria has become a killing field, “especially in Borno and Yobe, and the Benue River Valley, stretching from Adamawa through Taraba to the confluence of Kogi and Benue, and including Nasarawa, Plateau, Southern Kaduna, and Zamfara.”

He regretted that the killings have even extended to sacred places of worship where innocent Imams and Christian clergies and worshippers were slaughtered. Atiku warned that Nigeria could become like Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi and the Central African Republic, if those in government whose primary responsibility is the protection of the citizens continue to make contradictory and ridiculous excuses. (New Telegraph)

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