BY AYO ESAN
THE Peoples Democratic Party has said that the abysmal 2020 corruption index report on Nigeria by Transparency International has further confirmed that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress government is a citadel of corruption and the most corrupt administration in the history of the nation.
The party claimed that the record of unbroken decline, from 136th in 2016 to 144th in 2018, 146th in 2019 and now 149th in 2020, under President Buhari, settled what it described as the now notorious fact that the Buhari administration and the APC were “titleholders in corruption”.
The PDP said this in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan on Thursday.
It said, “TI report, which shows our country plunging to a putrid 149th on the corruption perception index in 2020; dropping 13 places since 2015, under the watch of ‘Mr Integrity’, is an incontrovertible confirmation that our nation is more corrupt under President Buhari and the APC, than it was in 2015 when they took office.
“This descent into the abyss of corruption only goes to show that President Buhari’s anti-corruption stance is a mere swindle used to delude Nigerians while the vaults were laid open for APC leaders and officials of the Buhari administration to plunder.
“Indeed, the record of unbroken decline from 136th in 2016 to 144th in 2018, 146th in 2019 and now 149th in 2020, under President Buhari, the African Union (AU) Anti-Corruption Champion’, settles the now notorious fact that the Buhari administration and the APC are titleholders in corruption.”
Ologbondiyan said Nigerians could now see that what the APC and the Buhari Presidency did, upon assumption of office, was to simulate a holier than thou attitude, deploy the instrument of propaganda to deliberately castigate the PDP with false corruption allegations just to divert public attention and create a safe atmosphere for APC leaders to loot the nation to her knees.
He said, “The fact remains that no matter how lies and falsehood try to prevail, the truth will always come to light at the end of the day.
“From the oil and inland revenue sectors to security, health, agriculture, food security, healthcare, transportation, road infrastructure, power, education, environment, among other critical sectors, none was spared from the kleptomaniac fingers of corrupt APC leaders and the cabal in the Presidency.
“Nigerians can now see that our alert on the allegation of the stealing of over N15 trillion by APC leaders and political cronies in the Presidency, was not just an opposition propaganda, but a patriotic stance which the APC and its administration have not been able to counter.”
The PDP alleged that the Buhari administration had failed to go after APC leaders and cronies allegedly involved in the stealing of over N9.6 trillion as detailed in a leaked NNPC memo; the over N3trillion in fraudulent oil subsidy regime “as well as trillions stolen from agencies, including the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the National Health Insurance Scheme, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the Social Investment Programme as revealed by First Lady, Aisha Buhari, the COVID-19 funds among a litany of frauds.”
It said the financial rot in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, under the Buhari administration, including stealing of recovered funds, underscored the level of corruption under the APC.
“It is equally appalling that the decay has reached a frightening situation where, under Mr. President’s watch, employment opportunities are sold to young boys and girls at alarming costs, ranging between N1.5m and N5m. Moreover the Buhari Presidency has failed to open up on its yearly budget for Nigerians,” the party said.
“Now that the Buhari-led APC administration has been further exposed, our party charges Nigerians to join in the demand for the APC, as a party, to commence the processes of refunding the N15 trillion stolen by its leaders before exiting our political firmament in 2023,” it added.
