TheCable

The People’s Democratic Party says it has “incontrovertible evidence” of corruption in the first 100 says of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.

The party also slammed the “insincerity” of the ruling party on the importance of assessing Buhari’s first 100 days in office, when the defunct ACN also assessed former president, Goodluck Jonathan, on his 100 days performance back in 2011.

Olisa Metuh, the national publicity secretary of the PDP, said this while speaking for the PDP on Politics Today, aired by Channels television late on Sunday.

He said: “When they (APC) are in opposition, they can make all sorts of noise about 100 days and when they are in power, they’ll tell us 100 days is not important. That is insincerity, and that is not very good for democracy in this country.

“I remember September 11, 2011, the then spokesperson for the ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, issued a statement assessing the 100 days of President Jonathan in office and he made a lot of comments. On the issue of security, he even condemned what was happening in Plateau and said the president was not serious and he had not started.

“And that was September 2011, and what was happening then could not be equated to the pictures of little children that you see in plateau state who are macheted to death. Now we have little children being killed in Jos, a lot of them slaughtered, nobody says anything about it. If we keep quiet, it’s not because we do not have facts. It is because of the sensitive nature of this country; we want to enhance the unity and sustain peace; that’s why the PDP decided to keep quiet.”

Metuh added that APC had just been brandishing figures on corruption without prosecuting anyone.

“They release figures and they announce to us that some people have stolen money. In terms of specifics, in terms of going down to exactly what happened, we have not seen the ruling party or the government tell us the people they are prosecuting and on what charges they are taking them to court,” he said.

“We in the PDP would want cases of corruption to be taken seriously, let us recover the money, let the people be prosecuted, let them be convicted and let them be punished. We support it.”

Selective justice

He said his party would continue to oppose selective justice, which he accused the government of the day of. He also said his party had evidence of corruption even in Buhari’s administration.

“What we are against is selective application of the war against corruption. We have not heard the APC or the government say any single statement about people who are in their party or people who have served in their party, former governors, serving governors, and we have cases. I can reel out cases of allegations of corruption against people in the APC, in the government, even in the last three months.

“We are hearing of cases where allocation of licences, contracts; there are sleazes going on and when we mention cases, we do have evidence. Before the PDP comes out to say something, we have done our homework very well and we have cases, we have incontrovertible evidence.

“When we spoke about the DSS DG, it was after the APC refuted it that we gave evidence. Let them come out and say they don’t have anybody guilty of corruption or say their people are saints.

“We have given up our people; whoever is guilty, please prosecute him. Let him be convicted, but do not shield your own people. Do not use anti-corruption as an instrument of political witch hunt.

“Mr President was not elected as EFCC chairman, he wasn’t elected to be IG of police, these things can go on while you focus on governance. Our own problem is that governance abandoned.”

Not Manufactured

Reacting to the PDP’s stance on the matters raised, La Mohammed, the national publicity secretary of the APC said the figures from APC were legitimate and not manufactured.

“People have accused us that we have been reeling out figures. We have never manufactured any of these figures; these figures have come out of investigations.

“It was the auditor-general of the federation that, in his report to the national assembly, complained that N183 billion was missing from the NDDC account; that’s not an APC fabrication.

“Mr President has no business talking about corruption, he’s not EFCC, ICPC; he does not micromanage these organisations. To say that all you’ve been hearing about government is corruption, I know that in the last three months, power has been more stable, queues have disappeared, security has improved. But for the bailout package, we would have had industrial crisis in at least 20 states. There has been a huge reform in the oil and gas sector.”