$1 Billion Approval: PDP Accuses Buhari Of Gross-Misconduct, Urges NASS To Commence Legislative Action Against President

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By Sadiq Umar – The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called for the rejection of President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval of the sum of $1billion from the Excess Crude Account for the procurement of military equipment to fight insurgency.

The opposition PDP alleged that the money was meant to finance President Buhari’s interests in the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s national convention and 2019 campaign, urging National Assembly to commence appropriate constitutional legislative actions against the President for gross misconduct for unilaterally approving the release of the fund without legislative approval.

In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, Thursday in Abuja, PDP further accused the Presidency of willfully sidestepping the National Assembly so as to avoid legislative scrutiny and accountability and pave way for the diverting of the fund for selfish partisan purposes.

“It is a notorious fact that the Presidency and the APC have been plotting to loot this $I billion from our heavily depleted Excess Crude Account (ECA) since last year, using the guise of fight against insurgency,” Mr. Ologbondiyan stated.

Adding: “This is the same Buhari administration that has been boasting of having technically defeated the insurgents. This is also an administration that is not known to have exhausted subsisting budgetary allocations for defense.

“Nigerians are thoroughly disappointed that President Buhari; the same African Union (AU) ‘anti-corruption champion’, who swore to be above board and to protect the constitution and our laws, will allow himself to fall for the temptation of resorting to ways and means which are totally at variance with the laws and all democratic tenets.

“Democracy thrives on constitutional processes of separation of powers, due diligence and transparency and not on totalitarian tendencies.

“PDP believes the President, as a leader, reasonably ought to have known that he is in no way above the law.

“We therefore urge the National Assembly to look into the constitution and impose appropriate legislative instruments against Mr President, if any part of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) has been breached by this unilateral decision.

“We further urge the National Assembly to scrutinize the constitution and other statute books for the purposes of strengthening the laws guiding the application of funds in our country, particularly under this inherently corrupt and incompetent administration.

“Moreover, since it has come to light that the Buhari administration is using the fight against insurgency as a conduit to siphon funds, as evinced in the alleged looting of the N18 billion Internally Displaced Persons (IDP)’s funds, we demand for an independent investigation into the processes of release and utilization of all special funds for war against insurgency in the last three years.

“The APC is in shreds and has lost the enormous goodwill that brought it to power in 2015 after failing in all its promises to Nigerians,” the statement added.

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