• Wednesday, 25th December, 2024

More Nigeria Articles

Lai Mohammed: PDP is Rapacious, Larcenous • Says FG has saved N120bn from elimination of ghost workers Olawale Ajimotokan
 Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has once again, criticized the 16 year reign of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), describing it as rapacious for looting the country’s commonwealth with impunity. He warned that it will be a tragedy if the erstwhile ruling party is ever allowed to come back to the saddle of power. Mohammed also said that federal government has sustained the economy through debt management. He said N120 billion was saved through the detection of thousands of ghost workers from the payroll and removing N108 billion in maintenance fees payable to banks, pre-TSA. He added that the government was also saving N24.7 billion through a determined implementation of the TSA. Mohammed dropped the hints yesterday in Lagos when he addressed the media on government’s fight against corruption and its concerted efforts to fix the economy. He said it would aggregate to a double tragedy and a contempt of Nigerians if the same PDP, that looted the treasury and left the country in rot are ever allowed to preside over the affairs of the nation. “Where do we start? Do we want a Diezani back as Petroleum Minister, after the recovery of at least $43 million and 56 houses from this one person? “Do we want the $2.9 billion – that’s about one-eighth of the 2018 budget – that has been successfully traced and recovered from looters by the EFCC since the inauguration of the present administration, to be re-looted? “What about the $151 million and N8 billion in looted funds that have been recovered from just three sources as a direct result of the introduction of the whistle-blower policy? Do we want them to be re-looted?” Mohammed asked in derision of PDP. Using the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) as a case study, he said in the past, state-owned entities had persistently under remitted operating surpluses under the PDP led administration. “Under the PDP, JAMB only remitted an aggregate of N51 million. In September 2017, the same JAMB announced it is ready to remit N7.8 billion back to the government. Do we want JAMB to go back to remitting N51 million?” He said almost N3 trillion, almost half of the estimated revenue in the 2018 budget, has accrued to government with the enforcement of the TSA policy, adding PDP lacked the political will to implement the TSA, which it started. “As the pace of politics gradually picks up ahead of 2019, it is important that we let Nigerians know the enormous progress that the Buhari Administration has made in just a little over two years, and to also, remind them of where the country was dumped by the PDP when we assumed office on May 29, 2015. “ Lest I forget: They recently alleged that our administration plans to arrest 50 of their members for alleged corruption. Really? Are there still up to 50 people in the tottering PDP? Seriously, the guilty are afraid (according to the title of one of James Hadley Chase novels). Let those who have plundered our treasury face the music, if they must”.

1 … 2,809 2,810 2,811 2,812 2,813 … 3,223

Founded on January 22, 1995, THISDAY is published by THISDAY NEWSPAPERS LTD., 35 Creek Road Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria with offices in 36 states of Nigeria , the Federal Capital Territory and around the world. It is Nigeria’s most authoritative news media available on all platforms for the political, business, professional and diplomatic elite and broader middle classes while serving as the meeting point of new ideas, culture and technology for the aspirationals and millennials. The newspaper is a public trust dedicated to the pursuit of truth and reason covering a range of issues from breaking news to politics, business, the markets, the arts, sports and community to the crossroads of people and society.

Helpful Links

Contact Us

You can email us at: hello@thisdaylive.com or visit our contact us page.