PDP: Abuja Town Hall Meeting Exposes Buhari’s Corruption Tendencies

By Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organisation (PPCO) has said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s comments at Wednesday’s Presidential Town Hall meeting in Abuja exposed his proclivities for corruption.

The main opposition party advised Buhari to end his showboating as Mr. Integrity as Nigerians have seen through the deceptions of his presidency.

The Director of Media and Publicity, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement Thursday, said Nigerians were shocked listening to Buhari’s defence of the Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje over videos showing the governor allegedly receiving bribe from a contractor.

According to him, “Nigerians can now see that the Buhari Presidency is a sanctuary of corruption, where officials thrive in using faceless individuals as fronts to fritter trillions of naira and cover their trails, while Nigerians wallow in hunger, acute starvation and untold hardship.”

Ologbondiyan stressed that particularly revealing was Buhari’s contention on whether Governor Ganduje could not have used another person to get the money; a comment, which ostensibly exposes how corruption is being covered in the Buhari Presidency.

He stated: “Perhaps, this offers an insight into why there has been no investigation into alleged involvement of some individuals said to be close to the Buhari Presidency in the N1.032 trillion alleged corrupt acquisitions in 9Mobile and Keystone Bank PLC.

“This is in addition to the muting of investigations of a former aide to the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, Mr. Baba Inna, who was arrested in September last year, over accusations of receiving N2.5 billion from politicians, businessmen and women on behalf of the First Lady.”

The PDP noted that Nigerians could also recall the confession of one Amina Mohammed, who while being paraded by the Department of State Services (DSS), stated in public that persons close to Buhari were involved in serial fraud and looting of public resources under the official cover of the Buhari Presidency.

The PDP spokesperson said this could also explain why investigations into the leaked memo detailing how N9 trillion was frittered through underhand contracts at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Ministry of Petroleum Resources has been stalled.

“This is in addition to government’s refusal to open up on allegations that 18 unregistered companied were used to divert N1.1 trillion worth of crude oil in 2017, as well as the alleged stealing of over N18 billion out of the N48 billion approved by the National Assembly for the rebuilding of six North-east states ravaged by insurgency among other sleazes in the Buhari Presidency.”