…Demands proscription of APC
…Looters list not complete without the name of Buhari, Osinbajo, Buratai, Tinubu, Ameachi, others- FFK
By Samuel Ogidan
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has again engaged the All Progressives Congress (APC) in a verbal war, insisting that the ruling party should explain to the world how President Muhammadu Buhari campaign was funded with looted money.
The opposition party charged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to proscribe APC, following the revelations that it allegedly financed President Buharia��s 2015 campaign with looted funds.
This is even as the former Aviation Minister and Director of Media and Publicity of the Campaign Organisation of PDP, Femi Fani-Kayode insisted that the looters list published by the APC government is not completed without the names of Muhammadu Buhari, Yemi Osinbajo, Rotimi Ameachi, Bola Tinubu, Lai Mohammed, Adamu Abdullahi, Dambazau, Kayode Fayemi, Babachir Lawal, Maina, Maikanto Baru, Burutai, all APC Governors and other key members of the Buhari administration and the APC.
PDP, in a statement by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, gave the Buhari-led Presidency a three-day ultimatum to respond to allegations that it was elected with looted funds or find itself top of the list of confirmed looters.
The party said instead of the Presidency and the APC to come out with a response on how President Buharia��s 2015 campaign was funded with looted sums, they are busy hallucinating about names of individuals whose matters are before the courts of competent jurisdiction.
“It is evidently clear that the APC, Federal Government and the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, are running away from the issue of how they raised money to install Buhari as President.
“They have pressed the panic button and resorted to unfounded allegations against PDP members just to divert the attention of Nigerians and the international community from their atrocious government and its manifold failures of leadership.
“The PDP will not join the panicky APC and the Federal Government in their resort to engage in matters that are subjudice because we believe and respect the rule of law, particularly, as it concerns the rights of every citizens.
“We know those in the APC and Buharia��s cabinet, who as champions of looting, plundered the resources of their various states and handed same over for the very expensive electioneering campaign of President Buhari, who had earlier confessed of his insolvency.
“We have challenged the APC and the Presidency to declare the sources of these funds and how they were used since they have been proven to come from public coffers.
“Now that the APC, the Federal Government, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and the Buhari Presidency have chosen a loud silence rather than accepting that looted funds were used to install Buhari as President in 2015, we charge INEC to do the needful by commencing the process for the proscription of the APC as a political party,” the party said.
Meanwhile, Fani-Kayode yesterday responded to the inclusion of his name in the looters’ list, adding that it was utterly shameful for such action as he’s innocent of any wrongdoing.
He said, in a statement that it was false for federal government to claim that he looted
800,000,000 naira from government coffers.
He said: “The fact of the matter is that no “looters list” is complete without the names of Muhammadu Buhari, Yemi Osinbajo, Rotimi Ameachi, Fashola, Bola Tinubu, Lai Mohammed, Adamu Abdullahi, Dambazau, Kayode Fayemi, Babachir Lawal, Maina, Maikanto Baru, Burutai, all APC Governors and other key members of the Buhari administration and the APC.
“I did not receive and neither was I ever given one kobo by any government official, government agency or govermment parastatal during President Goodluck Jonathan’s tenure.
The money she made available to me came from a private company account which was used to house contributions made to the Jonathan campaign by party supporters after a series of fundraising event.
“These were private funds and not public funds and neither can anyone expect us to have run an election in 2015 without any money. You do not run election campaigns with sand but with money.
“It is common knowledge that the Buhari campaign in 2015 was funded by moneys that can be traced directly to the state governments of Rivers state, Lagos state, Kano state, Ogun state and a number of other key APC states yet not one of those involved or that governed any of those states at the time have been questioned, arrested or prosecuted by the EFCC or the Federal Government.
“It is also comon knowledge that President Buhari himself was offered and received several benefits and received money from the office of the former National Security Advisor, Col. Sambo Dasuki, yet nothing has been done about this.
“From the foregoing it is clear that the Buhari administration’s so-called war against corruption is selective and punitive and it is nothing but a vicious media trial and politically-motivated witchunt.
“It is nothing but a squalid and mafia-like attempt to muscle, discredit, demonise and sillence key members of the opposition. It is slanderous, malicious and unjust.
“If not for the fact that the Buhari administration is an irresponsible, weak, desperate and corrupt government that has no confidence in itself and no sense of decency how can they declare people that have not been convicted by any court of law as “looters”.
“Not only is this a violation of the constitutional provision that says that an accused person is deemed innocent until they are proved guilty by a duly constituted court of law but it is also highly prejudicial to the criminal cases that they are or may be facing.
“Apart from that it is a crude and sordid attempt to intimidate the judges and influence the outcome of the cases which are before them and also to compel them to give the judgement that the government wants. This is not only unacceptable but it is also shameful.
“It is a clear violation of the concept of separation of powers which gives the judiciary alone the power to determine the guilt or otherwise of an accused person.
“It is trite law that only a court of law can declare a man guilty or declare him a thief or a looter and not Buhari and his government.”
Explain how Buhari campaign was funded with looted money- PDP tells APC
