PDP says $25bn contract scam for Buhari’s 2019 re-election bid

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the $25 billion contract scam by the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Maikanti Baru, is for funding President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2019 reelection bid.

This comes as the main opposition party has asked the President to order the NNPC GMD to proceed on compulsory leave and allow for full scale investigation into the matter.

Spokesperson of the party, Dayo Adeyeye, stated this at a press conference in Abuja on Thursday.

In a leaked letter dated August 30th, 2017 and addressed to President Buhari, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, had accused Baru awarding contracts worth over $25 billion without board’s approval.

He accused the NNPC GMD of insubordination and effecting changes in personnel at the state-run oil firm without recourse to the NNPC Board, which he chairs.

Addressing journalists, Adeyeye expressed concern that the fund, when converted to naira, is worth N9trillion, more than the nation’s annual national budget.

He wondered why the report on the suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir Lawal, has not been made public and acted upon, despite the President receiving the report since August 23, 2017.

“Will it be considered a ‘hate speech’ if we say the money being stolen by President Buhari’s men are being kept aside into a special pool for the prosecution of his second term ambition?

“We challenge the president to prove us wrong by allowing his allies being caught up in acts of brazen stealing of our commonwealth, get punished in accordance with the laws of the land. Anything aside this, we will take as confirmation of our suspicion that the rottenness is from the very top.

“We demand as bonafide Nigerians, an express order from President Muhammadu Buhari to the NNPC GMD asking him to go on compulsory leave so that investigation into the matter at stake can be conducted without interference,” he said.

Recall that the Senate had on Wednesday constituted an ad-hoc committee to investigate the allegations against the NNPC GMD.

The nine-man committee headed by former Sokoto State Governor, Aliyu Wammako, is also expected to investigate the policy introduced by Baru for allegedly allocating almost all petroleum products to Duke Oil.

Reacting to the development, the party spokesperson urged the ad-hoc committee to make its sitting public. This, he added, is to ensure that nothing is surreptitiously swept under the carpet.

He accused the Federal Government of engaging in double standard in its fight against corruption.

According to him, the present administration has set a national record in its looting of the nation’s resources.

The opposition party, he added, is opposed to soft landing to corruption and corrupt members of the APC government.

He said: “Nigerians have not forgotten the acts of illegality and double standard perpetrated by the president in refusing to hand over Babachir Lawal to the EFCC for proper investigation and possible prosecution for graft, but rather, preferring to give the task of investigation of the open sleaze to the Vice President, in a move not known to any law of this nation.

“Even at that, the report of the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo led committee is gathering dust on the shelf of the President because he probably could not bear to see one of his closest allies punished by the laws of the land, even when all facts show that blatant and unbridled theft was perpetrated by the president’s man.

“The sum involved in the NNPC scandal is $25 Billion. Less than 10% percent of that ($2 billion) is involved in the so called arms fund allegedly converted by the former NSA for which hundreds of Nigerians have been arrested and hounded. Nigerians can now see the hypocrisy in the so called anti-corruption fight. We may as well say that the privileged class of APC members enjoys total immunity from the anti-corruption campaign”.

 

OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja