16/12/2019
December 16, 2019
Press Statement
PDP To APC: Come Clean On N40bn FIRS Fund...Says Funds Should be Channeled for Job Creation
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) calls on the All Progressives Congress (APC) to come clean on revelations, in the public space, that the N40 billion taxpayers’ money allegedly siphoned from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) was used to finance its 2019 campaigns.
The party says the revelation, which has reportedly unsettled certain persons in the Buhari Presidency, has further exposed the APC as a decadent lot; a gathering of treasury looters who thrive in cheating, deceit and pretences at very high levels.
The development has further vindicated our stand that the APC is an extremely callous and hypocritical party, which has no iota of conscience but takes delight in depriving our citizens and pillaging resources meant for the wellbeing of our people.
It is shameful that instead of being remorseful, agents of the APC are reportedly engaging in dirty infighting over how the money was “shared”, with certain top leaders of the APC allegedly getting up to N3 billion each.
The PDP cautions the APC not to take Nigerians for a ride with its usual diversionary empty denials, finger pointing, hauling of insults and spurious accusations against the PDP, as the public already has reports of how very top leaders of the APC, including those operating at the Presidency, were used to conduit the money from the FIRS.
The PDP holds that in a nation battling the scourge of corruption, misrule, huge unemployment, unprecedented infrastructural decay, insecurity, hunger and untold hardship, such a humongous allegation must not be allowed to go under the usual APC carpet
Our party submits that since the APC has been overtly indicted, it should come clean by refunding the N40 billion to the public coffers from where it should be channeled to job creation projects without further delay.
The PDP invites Nigerians to note how the APC and its Federal Government have failed to account for various pillaging of public funds under the Buhari administration, including the N14 trillion stolen through various phony contracts in the NNPC as well as direct drawings from other government agencies such as the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
The PDP notes that if the trillions of naira stolen and stashed away in private purses of APC leaders are recovered and directed to development projects, our nation will not be in its present sorry state under the Buhari administration.
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary