The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has punctured President Muhammadu Buhari’s widely claimed integrity and anti-corruption stance, saying it is all grandstanding over thealleged violent rigging of the elections and his attempt to foist himself into a second term in office on the pedestal of stolen votes.
The party said President Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) should know that the PDP and the Nigerian people are focused and will not be distracted by any sort of blackmail in the pursuit of their allegedly stolen mandate.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, said in a statement, ‘’we are confident that our justices will never allow an illegitimate government to sit over the affairs of our dear nation.’’
PDP is accordingly charging President Buhari to stop gloating and showboating on Nigerians with the allegedly stolen 2019 Presidential mandate, as the people’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar will soon retrieve it from him at the tribunal.
They described President Buhari’s renewed attack and blame game on PDP administrations as ‘’a lame attempt to divert public attention from the overwhelming evidence that he rigged the elections, as well as from the plots by his Presidency to obstruct the clear winner, Atiku, from going to the tribunal to reclaim the mandate freely given to him by Nigerians.’’
PDP argued that if anybody has a question to answer on the administration of the country’s resources, ‘’it is President Buhari, who has not been able to offer any explanation on the looting of over N14 trillion from revenue generating agencies in a space of three years under his direct supervision.
‘’We ask; was it the PDP that siphoned over N9 trillion, through underhand contracts, as detailed in the leaked Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) memo, in the same sector President Buhari directly supervises as Minister of Petroleum Resources?
‘’Was it the PDP that stole the over N1.1 trillion worth of crude illegally lifted and diverted with 18 unregistered companies in 2017; the over N1.4 trillion in fraudulent oil subsidy regime and many more scams, including funds meant for the welfare of victims of insurgency in the North East under the Buhari administration?’’
Continuing, Ologbondiyan said, ‘’whereas the PDP administrations created wealth and applied our national resources on massive infrastructural development in all critical sectors; paid off our huge foreign and domestic debts and grew our economy to be one of fastest growing in the world, President Buhari, within a space of three years ran our economy into recession and cannot point to any development project his administration initiated and completed despite the huge opportunities at his disposal.
‘’President Buhari must note that Nigerians are no longer interested in his incompetence and blame game and this is the very reason they voted massively against him on February 23. He should therefore end his diversionary tactics and get ready to meet the people’s candidate, Atiku in court.”
Reacting to Atiku’s decision to seek legal redress over the outcome of the disputed presidential poll, President Buhari said, ‘’I expect that to happen.’’ The president who spoke at Daura, his home town in Katsina State on Saturday, also expressed concern over the reported cases of violence before and during the last Presidential and National Assembly elections.
While commending the efforts of the security agencies in addressing the various security challenges across the country, he said, ‘’I will leave it (security) to the law enforcement agencies especially the police because they have been meeting virtually on a 48-hour basis to make sure that they have identified the flashpoints, as you mentioned, wherever they are and make arrangements to counter it.’’
Buhari alongside his wife, Aisha, had earlier voted at the Polling Unit 003 Kofar Baru III, Gidan Niyam, Daura in Katsina.
