The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari, to respond to allegations that certain officials and individuals close to the Presidency defrauded Nigeria of the sum of N51 billion out of which N2.5 billion was allegedly wired to a family member.
The PDP said the recent reports of massive treasury looting “has further exposed his administration as a putrid citadel of corruption.” The PDP said this in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan.
The party asked the Buhari regime to “speak out on allegations, also in the public space, that 122 posh properties, valued at over N16 trillion and seized by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), were shared and allocated to cronies on the directives of the Presidency.”
The statement read in part, “The Buhari Presidency should not pretend not to be aware that the media is awash with reports that a known confidant of Mr. President and certain officials of the Nigerian Customs defrauded our nation to the tune of N51 billion under a hazy “Revenue Assurance Fund”, out of which N2.5 billion was reported to have been transferred to a foundation allegedly owned by a female member of the President’s immediate family.
“This close confidant, who is alleged to be fronting for certain individuals close to the President in scandalous contracts running into billions of naira in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) among other government agencies, was arrested at Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom in 2019, for alleged passport scam and laundering of 200,000 pounds allegedly belonging to a particular relation of Mr. President.
“On the EFCC scandal, the Buhari Presidency should come clean on how the anti-graft agency was hijacked to become an instrument of treasury looting and corrupt enrichment for fraudulent friends and officials of the Buhari administration. It is indeed appalling that such impunity and barefaced looting are going on under an administration that came into governance with an assurance of fighting corruption, only to end up swimming in an ocean of corruption.
“The PDP asks the Buhari Presidency to end its silence as the issues are already in the public domain, with Nigerians demanding for investigations. The PDP, therefore, demands that the Buhari Presidency should order an immediate and open investigation into the allegations into these duplicitous enterprises for which persons connected to the Presidency have again been mentioned,” the statement said.