The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately suspend the Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru over what the party called 25 billion dollar scandal.
“In this light, we demand an immediate suspension of the NNPC GMD so that proper investigation can be carried out by the relevant anti-corruption agencies.”
In a statement today, Thursday by the party’s national Publicity Secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, PDP expressed shock at the loud silence of President President Muhammadu Buhari on what it called “the humongous corruption scandal and other illegalities currently being exposed at the nation’s cash cow, the NNPC in which two of his henchmen, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu and the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru are the dramatis personae.”
The party said it expected the President, who prides himself as an indefatigable corruption fighter, would have genuinely allowed the NNPC boss to be properly investigated and prosecuted as a show of his impartiality in the war against corruption.
PDP said that it viewed the allegations against as too grave to be swept under the carpet and that the NNPC boss should be treated like an accused who should not have the opportunity to influence investigation into his alleged misdeeds.
“Ordinarily, if there was sincerity in the anti-corruption war , President Muhammadu Buhari should not have waited for any prompting before he takes a decisive action on this matter, but as customary with his administration, we suspect that he’s trying to shield Baru as he did for Babachir Lawal, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) whom he merely suspended to allow the hullabaloo generated by the fraud perpetrated in the management of the emergency fund for the IDPs, die down. Also up till now, we have never heard anything again about the millions of dollars and billions of Naira discovered at an Ikoyi apartment.
“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.”
The party stressed that it is tired of this double-faced corruptions fight and cover ups, even as it demanded an immediate commencement of investigation into this latest exposed sleaze by another of President Buhari’s men.
“We have been saying this for months that the looting of the nation’s resources under this administration is record setting in the history of this nation and we are being proven right on daily basis by the little revelations that are being made by even those working under the administration.
“We wonder what the stench will be when the real and hidden atrocities being perpetrated under the watch of President Buhari are finally exposed when Nigerians throw the APC government out of power in 2019.
“The sum of $25 Billion said to have been the subject of the latest controversy, when converted to Naira is about N9 Trillion, a sum that is bigger than the nation’s annual budget.
“This we find, is one of the very many reasons, the nation’s economy has nosedived under the inept administration of the APC.
“The allegations raised by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources is a confirmation of our earlier stance that the APC administration is in tatters, an administration without coordination, but one planted firmly in the hands of a few cabal who are stealing the nation dry while the President continues to feign ignorance of the sickening stench.
“If not, how on earth can President Muhammadu Buhari justify a situation where a minister he appointed to serve under him, presiding over an important sector like the oil sector be turned to a mere house-help who must get clearance from some “outsiders ” before accessing the president? How on earth will a mere MD of a corporation have the temerity to sideline a minister under whom he works and take decisions without consultation with the appropriate authority. How on earth could the NNPC GMD have been bold enough to sideline the entire board of NNPC and take such far reaching decisions that have grave implications on the nation’s economy alone?”[myad]
