The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described as alarming, the approval of $1 billion by the National Economic Council for the fight against Boko Haram in the North East.
The opposition party therefore called on the National Assembly to interrogate the proposed disbursement and subject it to thorough interrogation.
The PDP in a statement on Friday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the party was alarmed by the manipulative plot by the APC-led administration to secure approvals without recourse to due process, and for purposes of fighting the same insurgents it claimed to have defeated.
The party also wondered why the APC-led Federal Government had to recourse to the National Economic Council (NEC) while “avoiding the direct constitutional appropriation channel of the National Assembly for funding of items already provided for in the federal budget if it actually has nothing to hide.
“The PDP supports the fight against insurgency. We hold our officers and men confronting the terrorists and securing our territorial integrity in high esteem, but we are concerned about the manipulative tendencies connected with the approvals as well as the veracity of claimed purpose of the fund.
“Nigerians would recall that the APC-led Federal Government had claimed that it has since defeated the insurgents.
“If it would take a billion dollar from a nation’s savings to kill what they long claimed dead, then we challenge APC government to come clean and tell Nigerians the whole truth.
“The era of lies and propaganda is long gone and Nigerians now know the truth. The Federal Government must be held accountable and stopped from any move to fritter away our national savings”.
The PDP also noted that the development has rubbished the integrity of the current administration and demanded that it apologize to Nigerians for lying to them about the actual state of the fight against insurgency in Nigeria.
“By accepting the $1 billion for fighting insurgency, the APC-led Federal Government has admitted that it lied when it announced that it has defeated the insurgents. They should therefore apologize to Nigerians for giving them a false sense of security, resulting in their vulnerability to attacks by terrorists”, the party said.
The PDP recalled that the three points upon which APC hinged their promise were security, corruption and economy and it is apparent that they have failed in all.
“On the economy, they have taken us into recession; on security, Boko Haram is still ravaging our people; on corruption, the APC Government has only embarked on witchhunt of the opposition while enmeshed in monumental corruption thriving unabated right inside the engine of its administration”, the party said.
It vowed to ensure that the APC does not continue to play with the intelligence of Nigerians, “who are only waiting for 2019 to consign them into the dustbin of history”.
On Thursday, the Nigerian government announced that it had reached an agreement with the governors of the 36 states of the federation to release $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account to be used in the fight against terrorist group Boko Haram in the country’s North East region.
Intimating newsmen on the development, the Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, said the approval was given at the Federal Executive Council Meeting held at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa and chaired by the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday, December 13.
But on Friday, the Chairman PDP Governors Forum and Governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, washed his hands off the matter.
Reacting through his Twitter handle, he accused the Federal Government of releasing the money for the re-election campaign of President Buhari instead of what it was allegedly released for.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
