Joshua Elekwachi, Abuja
The ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) has described the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as unfit to criticize the President Mohammadu Buhari’s administration on corruption.
The party reacting to the statement made by the opposition on the alleged unremitted fund by the suspended Managing Director Of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Hadiza Bala Usman which has accused the ruling party of harboring corruption and still pretends to be fight against it.
The APC which described the statement by PDP as nonsensical said the comment by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against prominent party leader and the Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and the suspended Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman in connection with the routine administrative inquiry approved by President, Muhammadu Buhari into the activities of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) is untrue.
The party stated the attempt by the PDP to libelously drag the spouse of Amaechi (who has never held public office and is not a politician) into the realm of politics, and libelously malign her with their fictional tale of looting the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), “even for the totally debased PDP, that was a whole new low.”
National Secretary Caretaker/ Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe, who signed the statement decried the PDP, saying it is still living in an alternate reality in which corruption, aided by their family members and cronies was approved statecraft, adding, “For the PDP that looted everything in sight during the 16 years it held this country to ransom, it is understandable that it is still unable to understand a routine administrative probe.”
“For the fact that the APC-led government of President Buhari approved the probe of the NPA is a clear testimony of the President’s belief in transparency, good governance and adherence to the rules in public service. It further reinforces President Buhari’s zero tolerance for corruption in his administration.
“It is an irony that the PDP whose public officers’ family members and cronies collectively looted our country with many charged to court for financial crimes and money laundering offences, would based on fiction, slander the spouse of an APC public official. While we do not intend to go low as the PDP, we want to remind them that Nigerians still remember vividly the billions of Naira, millions of dollars of stolen state funds that were either recovered or confiscated from immediate-past PDP public officials, their family members and cronies.
“Yes, Nigerians are appalled, but not by the concocted story of looting against Amaechi’s spouse in NDDC but by the known fact that after many years of being in control of the NDDC, several PDP government officials, their family members and cronies salted away the enormous funds that accrued to the NDDC that was meant for the development of the Niger Delta region. We urge the PDP to allow us focus on cleaning the daunting mess they left behind in the Niger Delta, like most facets of our country.”