Labour Party Tackles Presidency, Asks APC to Declare Looted Funds

By Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The Labour Party (LP) has challenged the presidency and the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to reveal to the world how much of the looted funds have been recovered so far from indicted officials.

He said if truly the fight against corruption is yielding result, the President Muhammadu Buhari should have by now given details of funds recovery to the citizenry.

The party, however, urged the government to plough back into the economy all the said recovered loots, saying the idea of going for loan to finance 2016 budget should be dropped immediately.

The Chairman of the Labour Party in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Joseph Ndirang, who spoke in an interview at the national headquarters of the party yesterday in Abuja, said there are many policies the APC government urgently needs to look into if the current dwindling economy would be rescued.

“Well, the issue I have about the money is that if truly government has recovered such huge money I congratulate the government but it should be plough back into the economy immediately so that the economy can be boosted because without the economy of a country being sufficient in food production that country can not be said to have developed. Development is about sufficiency because Nigerians are suffering.

“You see there are policies this government need to look into critically and then if this money are truly recovered they need to be ploughed back to economy, we don’t need to borrow because if you go and borrow. I am a grand father, I am looking at my grand son now with the eyes of pity because I know I’m going to leave this world and leave debt on him. Truly people are suffering, let them plough back these money into the economy.”

According to Ndirang, “All the money that has been refunded where are they? Why are we going to borrow money to run government and the budget of this year? If the monies have been refunded where are they? Let them flood the streets.

“My brother, the banks are closing, workers are being thrown out of jobs, we are turning out half baked graduates and our educational system is in shambles. What are we really talking about, look nobody said government should not fight corruption, they should fight corruption but it should not be at the expense of the act of governance which is the provision of security and welfare to the citizens which is the primary responsibility of any government.

“They should look at all these things; let’s fight corruption but look at the economy, issue of security, and other issues bordering on the welfare of Nigerians and social security. For over a year now we are just fighting corruption, what about education, health and security?

“There is no social security programme in Nigeria, the only one they promised that they will give N5,000 to unemployed Nigerians up till now is still a mirage, so, what are we talking about and who are we deceiving?”

While reacting to the recent defection of Great Ogboru and others from Labour Party to APC, the FCT chairman said the party would not in any way miss the decampees.

“We can not miss him by anyway. If we did not miss Governor Mimiko, how can we miss Great Ogboru who has not been governor yet. You see in the political system many people come and many people go. PDP lost five governors in 2014, the five governors went and connived and they formed APC but PDP is still striving, they still have some governors. So, we don’t regret the exit of Great Ogboru.

“But like I said, our doors are open for Great Ogboru when he discovers that the party he has gone to is not better than Labour Party by any standard and we are sure that he can come back if he wishes,” he said.