President Buhari with VP Osinbajo
President Buhari with VP Osinbajo
PDP to Osinbajo: Stop Sermonizing, Answer your N33bn
corruption allegation
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has told Vice President Prof.
Yemi Osinbajo to wait until he explains the N33 billion corruption
allegations as exposed by the House of Representatives before
sermonizing and parading himself like a saint.
The main opposition party made this known in a statement on
Saturday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola
Ologbondiyan.
The party called on the Vice President to explain how the fund
meant for the well-being of suffering Nigerians in the Northeast
was mismanaged under his watch.
The PDP said “The Vice President owes it as a personal moral
burden, both as a preacher and Professor of Law, to directly
explain how the fund meant for the wellbeing of Nigerians suffering
in the Northeast, was mismanaged under his supervision, instead of
the lame attempts to dismiss the allegation and divert public
attention from the scandal.
Nigerians were thoroughly appalled to learn, from the House of
Representatives, how Prof. Osinbajo, as Acting President, in June
2017, unilaterally pulled N5.8 billion, from the Consolidated
Revenue Fund of the Federation, purportedly for emergency
intervention on food in the North East, which has now turned
scandalous.
Prof. Osinbajo should explain how, according to findings by the
House of Representatives, all the six states of the Northeast
failed to receive the emergency intervention for food security, for
which a major part of the money was claimed to have been expended,
under his direct supervision as Chairman of Board of the National
Emergency Management Agency, NEMA.
“What has Prof. Osinbajo to say on the revelation at the public
hearing conducted by the House of Representatives that there was no
evidence the World Food Programme (WFP) received the 5000 metric
tons of rice, which NEMA claimed to have bought and donated to WFP
for distribution to victims of insurgency in the region?
“What has our Vice President to say to the report indicating
that four of the companies that supplied food items to the region
financed their projects through N2bn they each received as loan
from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)?
“What is his answer to the huge allegations in the public domain
that bulk of the money meant for suffering Nigerians in the
Northeast was diverted to private pockets of key All Progressives
Congress (APC) and the Presidency cabal to finance their wasteful
lifestyle?
“The PDP is privy to the frantic effort by agents of the
Presidency and the APC to arm-twist and intimidate the House of
Representatives to abort its investigation and to ensure that the
report does not see the light of day If Prof. Osinbajo had no
ulterior intentions, why did he pull the money from the
Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation without recourse to the
statutory appropriation of the National Assembly?
“The PDP holds that the action of the Vice President in
unilaterally approving the release of the money to NEMA, where he
also presides as the Chairman of Board is completely self-serving
and ostensibly conceived and executed in corrupt intentions.
“Instead of answering to the allegation, Prof. Osinbajo is
employing rhetoric to divert attention, claiming that his actions
are covered by his apparent abuse of Section 43 of the Procurement
Act.
“We invite the Vice President to note that Section 43 of the
Procurement Act deals with the emergency duties of a procuring
entity and not the processes of drawing funds from the Consolidated
Revenue Fund of the Federation which is covered by the
Constitution. As such, there is no way he can justify his actions
under any of our laws.
“The Vice President should therefore advice himself properly by
responding to the huge corruption questions and stop his
unnecessary posturing.”
By PRNigeria