THE All Progressives Congress, APC,
has expressed strong support for President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to probe
the immediate past federal government, saying the revelations of mind-boggling
corruption that are just beginning to emerge have made such a probe imperative.
”Some people have insinuated that
the Buhari Administration should ignore the massive looting of our patrimony
and move on. We say no responsible government can afford to do that, because it
will amount to endorsing corruption and impunity,” the party said in a
statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai
Mohammed.
It said in the oil sector alone,
billions of dollars have been skimmed off by pathologically-corrupt public
officials, wondering how the government of the day can meet its obligations to
the citizens if it refuses to recover the huge funds taken away by thieving
officials
”It is an irony that those who are
suggesting that the Buhari Administration should turn a blind eye to the
incomprehensible looting are the same ones accusing the government of not doing
anything. It is even a cruel irony that the same party that presided over what
is fast emerging as the worst governance in the history of our country is the
same one that is daily bad-mouthing an Administration that is cleaning up its
mess,” APC said.
The party said even if all the acts
of corruption that were perpetrated during the tenure of the last Administration
are limited to what is now in the public domain, it is still absolutely exigent
for the Buhari Administration to do all it can to bring the perpetrators to
book and recover the looted funds.
”Where does one start from? Is it
the fact that the NNPC failed to remit 3.8 trillion Naira to the Federation
Account or the mind-blowing stealing of 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day?
Is it the fact that the NNPC itself does not know how many bank accounts it had
or into which ones the payments for Nigerian crude are made? Could anyone have
imagined that a government minister would steal the unprecedentedly-huge amount
of 6 billion US dollars of public funds as being alleged?
”How does any sane person
rationalize the fact that 1 billion dollars was unilaterally and illegally
withdrawn from the Excess Crude Account just because, as the immediate past
Minister of Finance has disclosed, the President ordered the withdrawal? What
about the billions of Naira waivers recklessly approved to dubious importers by
the Jonathan administration?
”Is it not clear now that the
stealing and the profligacy – more than anything else, including the fall in
oil price – helped to drastically reduce the monthly allocation from the
Federation Account from about 800 billion Naira to about 400 billion Naira,
thus pauperizing the states and the local governments, and by extension the
citizenry?
”Against the background of the
stunning revelations, what message will any government be sending to its
citizens and indeed the global community by looking the other way, when it
could still recover some of the looted funds for the benefit of the people?
This is why we are supporting the Buhari Administration’s probe decision, and
calling on all Nigerians to support ongoing efforts to get to the root of the
matter,” it said.
APC said it is now clear that the
Jonathan Administration cleverly delayed giving the then incoming Buhari
government the handover note so as to avoid being asked critical questions
pertaining to the unprecedented looting under its watch.
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