28th July, 2015
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has stated that during the immediate past administration led by former president, Goodluck Jonathan, billions of dollars were stolen by public officials which it described as “pathologically corrupt”.
The party on Tuesday said it was fully supportive of President Muhammadu Buhari’s drive to probe the immediate past federal administration.
The party’s position was contained in a statement issued in Abuja by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
According to the statement, the revelations of mind-boggling corruption emerging from the past administration, has made such a probe imperative.
“Some people have insinuated that the Buhari administration should ignore the massive looting of our patrimony and move on.
“But we say no responsible government can afford to do that, because it will amount to endorsing corruption and impunity.
“It is an irony that those who are suggesting that the Buhari administration should turn a blind eye to the incomprehensible looting are the same ones accusing the government of not doing anything,” the statement said.
It added that it was “cruel irony” that the political party and individuals who brough prevailing hardship on Nigerians were “daily bad-mouthing an administration that is cleaning up the mess.”
The APC said that billions of dollars were stolen from the oil sector by “pathologically-corrupt” public officials.
It, therefore wondered how the present Federal Government could meet its obligations if it refused to recover the huge funds taken away by the “thieving officials”.
It declared that the probe was important and advanced reasons why the president must go ahead with it.
“Where does one start from? Is it the fact that the NNPC failed to remit N3.8 trillion to the federation account or the mind-blowing stealing of 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day?
“Is it the fact that the NNPC itself does not know how many bank accounts it had or into which ones the payments for Nigerian crude are made?” it asked.
The party also queried the rationality in the “illegal’ withdrawal of 1 billion dollars from the Excess Crude Account “just because, as the immediate past Minister of Finance has disclosed, the President ordered the withdrawal.”
The statement also said that billions of naira waivers were approved to dubious importers and the fall in oil price helped reduce the monthly allocation from the Federation Account thereby pauperising the states.
It said that it would amount to wrong signals to citizens and the global community if the present administration looked the other way when it could still recover some of the looted funds.
“This is why we are supporting the Buhari administration’s probe decision, and calling on all Nigerians to support ongoing efforts to get to the root of the matter,” it said.