The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, says at least N33tn was unaccounted for under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
He, therefore, asked the Peoples Democratic Party to keep shut as the opposition party had no right to criticise the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government.
Odigie-Oyegun was quoted as saying this in a statement issued by his media office and signed by Segun Dipe.
Noting that even among thieves, there must be honour, the chairman said Nigerians, who are now bearing the brunt of the economy that was mindlessly mismanaged by the PDP, cannot forget in a hurry that some $15bn – which is about half of the nation’s foreign reserves at the end of the tenure of the PDP-led Federal Government – was mismanaged under the guise of the equipping the military, when in reality the funds were stolen by the PDP.
He said Nigerians were also not unaware that just before the last general elections, some $2.1bn was shared out to just a few PDP faithful, either to be used for praying against Boko Haram or for phantom communication purposes, when in reality the soldiers whom the money was meant to equip were dying in droves.
The statement added, “The chairman listed other instances of the massive looting of the national till under the PDP, which never differentiated between the party’s finances and the Nigerian treasury, to include: The $20 billion in oil proceeds that was never paid into the Federation Account; and the N33tn in national oil revenue that was not accounted for, considering that while the nation earned in excess of N56tn over five years under the last administration, the total budget for those years amounted to about N23tn.
“Also is the $47m that was distributed to a few individuals just to oil the election process before the last polls.”
The APC chairman said Nigeria suffered serious damage under the last administration and is now in the Intensive Care Unit.
Odigie-Oyegun said while indeed it was glaring that the PDP-led administration was profligate and rapacious, nothing prepared Nigerians for the mind-boggling discoveries that have emerged in the past one year, including the fact that just a handful of people could had plundered far more than half of what belonged to a country of over 170 million people!
“Nigeria is currently in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit), after it was rescued from the PDP. Yet, the same PDP has the audacity to constantly pillory the ‘doctors’ trying to save the ‘patient’,’’ the chairman said.
