Reps: PDP caucus faults approval of N378bn contracts ahead of 2019 campaign

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caucus in the House of Representatives on Thursday alleged that the N378 billion contracts passed by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) ahead of 2019 electioneering was ill-conceived.

Recall that Federal Executive Council (FEC) during the six-hour extraordinary meeting held on Wednesday, which extended to Thursday, approved the sum of N155.7 billion for the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-
Kano road; N14.4 billion for the Efire-Araromi-
Aiyede-Aiyela road connecting Ondo and Ogun States; N62.06 billion for the Enugu-Onitsha Road (Amansia and Umunya sections); N38.965 billion for the first phase of
provision of independent power plant for nine universities and one teaching hospital.

The Council also approved the sum of N3.8 billion for the augmentation of the Goodluck Jonathan Way in
Abuja linking Keffi-Nyanya into the city and another N26 billion for the infrastructure development of Wasa resettlement as well as N436 million variation cost for the completion of Police Service Commission headquarters in Abuja and N457 million variation cost for the Nnamdi Azikiwe Mausoleum in Anambra State.

Chukwuma Onyema, House of Representatives’ Deputy Minority Leader who gave this position via a statement issued in Abuja, take a swipe at the poor implementation of the 2017 budget, which stands below 25 percent.

“We note too that a government that finds it impossible to implement a mere 25 percent of the national budget in any given year, has now frantically woken up in a rush, doing a two-days’ FEC meeting just to pass contracts worth N378 billion before campaigns begin in earnest,” Onyema alleged.

The Anambra lawmaker who denounced the Fresh PDP group which announced its emergence on Wednesday in Abuja, described the promoter(s) as a mere band of ill-disguised impostors whom the House caucus will never recognize or interact with.

“This band of impostors – pawns being strung along by devious elements in the ruling party – has the audacity to arrogate the name of our party, the PDP, to its misadventure, using a rented space somewhere in Asokoro, Abuja.

“Feigning complete ignorance that the Wadata Plaza national headquarters of the PDP that is recognized by the Independent National Electoral Commission is located at Wuse Zone 5 in Abuja, they pasted two copies of our flag on the wall and went to town like a band of jesters.

“The PDP House caucus hereby declares that the five leprous fingers said to constitute the mischievous adventure do not constitute any faction, splinter group or whatever fanciful description they claim within PDP as they are only serving the errands of the ruling party elements planning to use them for even more mischief early next year.

“The activities of the said men claiming to be starting a fresh PDP deserve urgent investigation and immediate halt by the Police and the Department of State Security as we would not want enraged supporters of the PDP to take the laws into their hands in the process of dealing with such miscreants.

“There is need to investigate how far these five leprous fingers are connected to the APC and its past record of widespread deceit and unscrupulous propaganda.

“Our convention has come and gone in the face of a ruling party that seems so petrified at the thought of facing a reawakened PDP, even as it remains unable to hold a national convention like we did,” Onyema said.

The PDP lawmaker further alleged that the “mischievous claim of forming a fresh PDP with the voice of five unknown men shows the hands of APC in its desperation to hold on to power by all means, even after failing to touch lives purposefully in spite of making scores of unrealized promises.”

 

KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja