The verbal war between the ruling All Progressives Congress (PDP) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) appears to be escalating by the day.
Following Friday’s release of a list of alleged PDP treasury looters by the Minister of Information and Culture Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the two main political parties have continued to exchange accusations of corruption.
In the latest tirade, the PDP said President Muhammadu Buhari has no moral rectitude to fight corruption. It accused the President of being a direct beneficiary of “corruption freebies” deployed by his party leaders to fund his 2015 presidential election.
The PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement on Saturday, said the billions of Naira deployed for President Buhari’s 2015 campaign were proceeds of corruption.
“The President, who declared that he had no resources to run a presidential campaign in 2015, ought to have known, particularly as a leader, that the billions of naira deployed for his campaigns were proceeds of corrupt activities of known All Progressives Congress (APC) governors and leaders”, it added.
The opposition party challenged the President to make open the sources of fund available to his campaign in the 2003, 2007 and 2011 race as well as the names of the donors.
The PDP said it is particularly interested in the fund allegedly provided by an unnamed South-south governor for the 2011 presidential election as well as how the cost of litigation was paid by the then Buhari Campaign.
It insisted that the APC and the Federal Government cannot list names of looters and attempt to shy away from the fact that President Buhari and his party are direct beneficiaries of fund looted by APC governors.
The party said the President and his party leaders have huge confessions to make on how they raked in state stolen resources to prosecute the 2015 elections.
The statement said, “If the Federal Government and the APC are serious about fighting corruption and not just out to persecute PDP members, they should have begun with the probe into the source of the billions of naira used for President Buhari’s 2015 presidential campaigns, particularly in the face of allegations that the fund was looted from treasuries of various APC states.
“Can President Buhari in all honesty claim ignorance of reports in the open media that a South-south governor looted several billions from his state accounts and diverted the sums into Buhari’s 2015 campaigns?
“Can the Presidency and the APC inform Nigerians what steps the Federal Government has taken to investigate this allegation, which has been in the public domain and to clarify their roles as beneficiaries of the alleged looted funds?
“If they are not complicit, why are they not demanding the truth in the matter and the possible refund of the fund for the good of the people?
“We challenge President Buhari to tell Nigerians what he has done regarding the leaked memo showing N9 trillion ($25billion dollars) corrupt oil contracts at the NNPC as well as the alleged stealing of N1.1 trillion worth of crude oil, all in a sector under his direct purview as minister of Petroleum.
“The Presidency should tell Nigerians what has been done to recover the stolen N18 billion Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) intervention fund and the N10 billion National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) fund alleged to have been stolen from the Treasury Single Account (TSA) by APC officials and Presidency cabal.
“Furthermore, the Buhari Presidency must immediately explain why it has been providing cover for the cabinet minister reported to have bought a property worth N280 million in Abuja from corrupt enrichment.
“How can a President who enjoys the company of perjurers, looters and is never aware of the activities of corrupt people around him, fight the menace of corruption?
“Indeed, Nigerians have pulled off the facade of lies and propaganda of the Buhari Presidency and APC deception machinery and what they see now is the stark pretentiously sanctimonious Buhari Presidency”.
