Posted by By FEMI BABAFEMI on
The Action Congress (AC) has demanded the immediate resignation of Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, chairman, Senate ad-hoc committee on the PTDF for doing what the party called "a shoddy job."
The Action Congress (AC) has demanded the immediate resignation of Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, chairman, Senate ad-hoc committee on the PTDF for doing what the party called "a shoddy job."
Besides, the party is also asking that the senator apologise to Nigerians for attempting to mislead them and for allegely trying to cast aspersion on the entire Senate.
While agreeing with the recommendation of the committee's minority report submitted by Senator Olupitan that the Senate should explore the possibility of setting up a judicial commission of enquiry to look into the operations of the PTDF from 1999 to date, the party expressed worry over the decision of the committee to ignore the advice of its legal consultant.
According to a statement by the party's National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed: "The Senate committee ignored the advice of its Legal Consultant that there is no linkage between money deposited in a bank and the loan given out by such bank. If that were not the case, then President Obasanjo's 200 million naira loan from UBA, to acquire Transcorp shares, would have been linked directly to the huge chunk of the PTDF funds in that bank.
"The Ad-hoc committee erred by not making efforts to verify all allegations made by the Vice President when he testified during the public hearing. As noted by Senator Olupitan, the VP testified under oath, making several accusations against President Obasanjo and many others.
Yet, the committee did not deem it fit to invite President Obasanjo and the others so accused to state their own side of the issues. We agree, therefore, with the submission that the evidence given by Atiku Abubakar under oath must be accepted by the committee since such evidence was not contested under oath."
The party also berated Mallam Nasir el-Rufai for his comments over the report.
"We condemn, in totality, the seeming gloating by the Minister of FCT, Nasir el-Rufai, who gave the reaction of the FEC to the committee's report. The report has not been adopted by the whole Senate hence cannot be said to have ‘vindicated' the President and the FEC.
"We disagree with those calling for the punishment of VP, Atiku Abubakar alongside President Olusegun Obasanjo. The VP has done no wrong and cannot be subjected to an unjust punishment. On the other hand, President Obasanjo has clearly abused his office by using the PTDF money as a slush fund and should be sanctioned without delay," it added.