$6.9bn Loan: Stop Profiteering, Looting With COVID-19, PDP Tells FG

Press Statement

Officials…Urges NASS to Protect Nigerians

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has cautioned officials of the All

Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government to stop using the

deadly COVID-19 pandemic as gateway for corrupt profiteering and looting

of our national treasury.

The party lamented that the financial opacity amidst allegations of

diversion of billions of naira meant for palliatives to vulnerable

citizens is already frustrating the commitment by Nigerians and other

well-meaning groups in the overall effort to combat the spread of the

scourge in our country.

Our party is worried over the activities of certain officials who are

using the COVID-19 pandemic to create and manipulate situations that

circumvent financial documentation and accountability rules and pave way

for the looting of our treasury and borrowed funds, while the people are

left at the mercy of the plague.

This is in addition to anxieties that such officials are hiding under

the demands of COVID-19 pandemic to mop up our international reserves as

well as driving our nation into a frenzied $6.9 billion foreign

borrowing, with no clear-cut terms.

This is amidst allegations of plots by unscrupulous officials to

manipulate the system and create channel for a slush fund that will be

diverted to corrupt APC leaders and the cabal, while mortgaging the

future of our nation’s generation yet unborn.

Our party fears that there are attempts to hide under COVID-19 to empty

our $3.4 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) saving, thereby

leaving our nation dry.

While it is obvious that the Buhari administration seeks to use the

challenges posed by the coronavirus disease as an excuse for its

mismanagement of the economy, which it had wrecked before the outbreak

of the pandemic, our party firmly rejects the attempt by rogues in

government circles to use the scourge to ‘cash out’ our treasury and

further destroy our economy.

This is especially as the APC administration is reputed to be a haven of

corrupt individuals, scammers, treasury looters, certificate forgers,

election riggers, blackmailers, purveyor of fake news and violators of

rule of law and court orders.

Our party invites Nigerians to note that, while a handful of Nigerians

have not acknowledged receiving such funds and officials involved have

not been able to account for the disbursement, humongous figures are

already being bandied to have been spent.

The situation is pathetic and shows how low the social investment

system, which the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, had earlier warned as being

riddled with corruption, had degenerated.

The PDP therefore wants the National Assembly to protect the people by

immediately scaling up its oversight activities on the handling of the

COVID-19 social intervention funding.

The legislators must ensure clauses that guarantee transparency and

accountability, particularly in drawing from our treasury as well as in

approving any further foreign loans for the Buhari administration, are

enshrined in Act.

Furthermore, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as well

as the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences

Commission (ICPC) should set up special squads across the country to

monitor the implementation of the palliatives and bring culprits to

book.

The safety and wellbeing of Nigerians must be paramount at this critical

time.

Signed:

Kola Ologbondiyan

National Publicity Secretary