Budget Presentation: PDP Uncovers Alleged Plot to Unleash EFCC on Lawmakers

•  Atiku’ll eliminate multiple taxation 

•Farmers’ donation to Buhari unlawful

By  Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) campaign organisation has raised the alarm over an alleged plot by the Presidency to send the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) after members of the National Assembly who supposedly booed President Muhammadu Buhari during his budget presentation to the National Assembly, last week.

This is coming as the Presidential Campaign Organisation of the main opposition party has said that its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has perfected a blueprint that would eliminate multiple taxation, slash income tax, while also increasing government funding to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), in key sectors of the economy.

A spokesperson of the campaign, Mr. Buba Galadima, raised the alarm yesterday while addressing a press conference in Abuja, even as he described the purported donation by farmers for Buhari’s re-election bid as unlawful, and unjustifiable in any court of law.

According to him, “A lot of people who are uninformed felt that it was either unnecessary, rude to interact or to boo a president of a country. Some of us felt otherwise, because they were reacting to statements being made by the president from performance and rolled out certain indices or facts about his performance all over Nigeria within the preceding year of this budget.”

Galadima said it was unfortunate that the president is a person that cannot check his facts, and has no way of finding out the truth, adding that whatever is given to him by his subordinates, he takes it and rolls it out to the public.

“This has called his integrity to question,” he insisted that it was not out of place for members of the National Assembly to boo the president, stressing that besides there is a parliamentary immunity.

Galadima stated, “We learnt under an impeccable authority that some of his close aides are meeting and taking names of those who supposedly booed the President  to frame them, either with EFCC or ask the police to invite them. I don’t know for what purpose.”

“They can’t arrest any parliamentarian for booing the President on what he thinks is correct. They should be careful with what they are trying to do, because what they are planning to do, whether the President knows or he doesn’t know, will affect the 2019 general elections.

“He (Buhari) has no authority whatsoever, or his agents whether EFCC, ICPC, Police and DSS to accuse any parliamentarian for having booed the President on the floor of the National Assembly because what the President read out as achievement was absolutely trash; were absolute falsehood; they were absolute misrepresentation of facts. By now, we must have seen that 90 per cent of what he called achievement were rarely not true,” he added.

Reacting to the report that Farmers Association of Nigeria had contributed N100 each to fund the re-election of the  president, Galadima described it as unlawful.

He said, “If it is true, this is against the Electoral Act, because in the Electoral Act, whoever does business with government cannot contribute to the election of that government. It is against the law.”

Galadima stated categorically that those who made that contribution and those who received the contribution should be called to book and be arraigned before the appropriate court of law.

Meanehile, the campaign council of the Presidential Campaign Organisation has said its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has perfected a blueprint that would eliminate multiple taxation, slash income tax, while also increasing government funding to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), in key sectors of the economy.

The Director of Media and Publicity, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement yesterday, stated that Atiku was personally worried about the current huge tax burden and hidden levies on businesses, common commodities and services by Buhari’sadministration, which has led to the prevalent economic strangulation, high costs and untold hardship being faced by Nigerians.

According to him, “This position marks a clear difference between Atiku Abubakar and President Muhamamdu Buhari who is planning to increase the suffering of Nigerians by imposing more taxes on them in the coming year.”

Ologbondiyan stressed that a detailed check on the tax regime under the Buhari administration showed that apart from huge capital gain taxes, which are crippling businesses and scaring away investors to other countries, Nigerians are also bearing the huge burden of hidden taxes on everyday consumer goods and services.

He said it was instructive to note that while Buhari has confessed that he has no solution to the country’s economy, which is now in comatose under the present administration, Atiku offers solutions with blueprints that ensure economic prosperity for all Nigerians at all levels.