SAN FRANCISCO, May 21, (THEWILL) – The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of corruption in the handing of the fuel subsidy regime under the All Progressive Congress (APC) government.
The PDP in a statement on Sunday by its Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, challenged President Buhari to submit himself for an independent inquest into his own handling of the N1.4 trillion oil subsidy regime.
The PDP also invited Nigerians to note that a recent demand by governors to probe all subsidy deals since 2015 is a direct indictment on President Buhari as the Minister of Petroleum.
It asked the President to clear himself of alleged complicity in other exposed financial impropriety by cronies of his government, particularly in revenue collecting agencies.
Such an inquest, according to the party, will expose ‘humongous corruption’ and also “show the world our African Union (AU) Anti-Corruption champion had not been totally spotless.”
“If President Buhari allowed the inquest, it will reveal how our president, who had queried the genuineness of the oil subsidy payments by the PDP administration and described the process as a fraud, had secretly engaged in underhand oil subsidy deals. Nigerians will also understand how the cost of fuel geometrically rose from the PDP subsidised cost of N87 to N145, representing a criminal N58 tax, per litre of fuel.
“PDP considers this as a fabrication to retire the billions being stolen as subsidy, even when statistics by the National Bureau of Statistics and the reality of the retarded purchasing power of citizens, under the prevailing economic recession, do not validate such claims. Nigerians therefore deserve to know who authorised the payments and the identity of the beneficiary companies, if any.
“The PDP is happy that state governors across board and the National Assembly are on the same page with our party in condemning the humongous fraud going on under President Buhari’s fuel subsidy.
“The PDP therefore demands that the inquest covers the alleged the N15 billion stolen from the NHIS, the N18 billion stolen from the PINE initiative, the alleged leaked memo of N9 trillion corrupt oil contracts at the NNPC, the reported diversion of N1.1trillion worth of crude last year and why indicted presidential cronies and fronts have not been prosecuted,” the opposition party stated.
THEWILL recalls that the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, recently announced its annual expenditure on fuel subsidy saying it had risen to over N1.4 trillion.
While the federal government has not formally said it is paying for fuel subsidy, it has consistently pushed the explanation of how public funds are spent to ‘subsidise’ fuel consumption to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the state owned outlet.
The NNPC for a while has been the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria. It has also said Nigerians consume about 60 million litres of petrol daily, figure disputed by state governors.
