The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the approval
for the release of $1bn to the APC-led Federal Government under the guise of
fighting insurgency in the northeast as curious and alarming.
The PDP in a statement on Friday by its National Publicity
Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said it was a manipulative plot by the APC
administration to secure approvals without recourse to due process.
According to PDP it was more alarming that APC claimed that the
money was for the purposes of fighting the same insurgents it claimed to have
since defeated.
The PDP also wondered why the APC-led Federal Government had to
recourse to the National Economic Council (NEC) while “avoiding the direct
constitutional appropriation channel of the National Assembly for funding of
items already provided for in the federal budget if it actually has nothing to
hide.
“The PDP supports the fight against insurgency. We hold our
officers and men confronting the terrorists and securing our territorial
integrity in high esteem, but we are concerned about the manipulative
tendencies connected with the approvals as well as the veracity of claimed
purpose of the fund.
“Nigerians would recall that the APC-led Federal Government
had claimed that it has since defeated the insurgents.
“If it would take a billion dollar from a nation’s savings to
kill what they long claimed dead, then we challenge APC government come clean and
tell Nigerians the whole truth.
“The era of lies and propaganda is long gone and Nigerians now
know the truth. The Federal Government must be held accountable and stopped
from any move to fritter away our national savings.
“We therefore call on the National Assembly to interrogate this
proposed disbursement and subject it to a thorough but rapid interrogation”,
the statement said.
The PDP also noted that the development has rubbished the
integrity of the current administration and demanded that it apologize to
Nigerians for lying to them about the actual state of the fight against
insurgency in Nigeria.
“By accepting the $1bn for fighting insurgency, the
APC-led Federal Government has admitted that it lied when it announced that it
has defeated the insurgents. They should therefore apologize to Nigerians for
giving them a false sense of security, resulting in their vulnerability to
attacks by terrorists”, the party said.
The PDP recalled that the three points upon which APC hinged
their promise were security, corruption and economy and it is apparent that
they have failed in all.
“On the economy, they have taken us into recession; on security,
Boko Haram is still ravaging our people; on the corruption, the APC Government
has only embarked on witch hunt of the opposition while enmeshed in
monumental corruption thriving unabated right inside the engine of its
administration”, the party said.
The PDP vowed to ensure the APC does not continue to play with
the intelligence of Nigerians, who are now only waiting for 2019 to consign
them into the dustbin of history.
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