APC Insists On Probe Of Treasury Looters
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has insisted that
President Muhammadu Buhari owes a duty to investigate the
“spine-chilling” and “mind-boggling” massive looting of Nigeria’s
treasury by former public officials. The party therefore argued that
patriotic Nigerians support Mr. Buhari’s efforts to fully recover the
stolen funds.
A statement signed by Lai Mohammed, the APC’s national publicity secretary, warned those seeking to derail or sabotage the recovery of looted funds, adding that such people are unpatriotic.
Mr. Mohammed expressed gratitude to Nigerians who have lent their overwhelming support to Mr. Buhari in his determination to ensure recovery of the looted funds and prosecution of the looters.
The APC noted with satisfaction that the vast majority of Nigerians “are vehemently opposed to the few who would rather have the government of the day turn a blind eye to the looted funds and, in their words, carry on with the process of governance.”
According to the party’s statement, no serious governance could go on if the billions of naira in a few hands were not recovered. “In the first instance, the government needs every kobo of the funds it can muster to bring about the change it has promised Nigerians. Secondly, leaving such hair-raising funds in the hands of the few looters is dangerous, because they can use the funds to destabilize any government. In fact, no one will be surprised if the looters use their dirty funds to sponsor public demonstrations against the government's determination to recover the funds,” Mr. Mohammed said in the official statement.
The statement added that “allowing those who privatized the commonwealth to get away is offering a thumbs-up for looting. No responsible government will do that.”
The APC accused the unconscionable looters of the nation’s resources of embarking “on a relentless and an increasingly bold campaign to discredit the government of the day and sabotage the funds' recovery process, using newspaper columnists, 'talking heads' and otherwise respectable opinion leaders.
“They and their paid hirelings have tried to employ sophistry to muddle the waters, but Nigerians are much wiser, and will not succumb to the dirty antics of the looters' megaphones.”
The APC listed some of the instances of massive looting by former public officials, declaring that it was important to arm Nigerians with the information to enable them to be aware of the gravity of the situation. According to the APC, 3.8 trillion naira out of the 8.1 trillion naira earned from crude oil from 2012 to 2015 was illicitly withheld by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). In addition, the APC disclosed that $2.1 billion from the Excess Crude Account could not be accounted for.
The APC also itemized other instances of unaccounted or looted funds as follows:
--The Department of Petroleum Resources failed to remit N109.7 billion royalty from oil firms.
--$6 billion allegedly looted by some ministers of the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
--160 billion barrels of crude worth at least $13.9 billion was lost between 2009 and 2012.
--$15 million frittered away in botched arms deals yet to be returned to Nigeria.
--$13 billion in Nigerian Liquefied National Gas dividends that is mostly unaccounted for.
--N30 billion given away as rice waivers.
--N183 billion in funds to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) that is unaccounted for.
Mr. Mohammed stated that its list of missing or unaccounted funds represented a fraction of the funds mismanaged by previous administrations. It added that most of the identified missing funds were from the oil sector, adding that the ongoing forensic audit of other key sectors was likely to expose more instances of looted funds.
“The level of looting that went on in other sectors is better imagined, hence the need for all Nigerians to rally around the Buhari Administration to recover the loots, bring the looters to justice and to put in place measures to prevent such looting in the future,” the APC stated.
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