The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday described the approval for the release of $1billion to the Federal Government under the guise of fighting insurgency in the North East as curious and alarming.
A statement issued on Friday by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, said the party was alarmed by the manipulative plot by the All Progressive Congress (APC) administration to secure approvals without recourse to due process, and for purposes of fighting the same insurgents it claimed to have since defeated.
The PDP wondered why the 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 party said: “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 dollars from a nation’s savings to kill what they long claimed was dead, then we challenge the APC government to 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 PDP also noted that the development has rubbished the integrity of the current administration and demanded that it apologise to Nigerians for lying to them about the actual state of the fight against insurgency in Nigeria.
“By accepting the $1billion 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 apologise to Nigerians for giving them a false sense of security, resulting in their vulnerability to attacks by terrorists,” the party added.