NDDC: Akpabio should step aside for uninterrupted probe – PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has challenged the Minister of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Senator Godswill Akpabio over corruption allegations against him.

PDP in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, Monday said the revelation was just a tip of the iceberg of the “stinking corruption and criminal racketeering that have pervaded the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration.”

The party observed that “the silence and inaction by the Buhari Presidency and the APC since the uncovering of the fraud in the NDDC signpost complicity at the highest levels as well as validate public stance that treasury looting and cover up for corrupt persons are normal official statecraft and manifesto of the APC and the Buhari administration.” 

Continuing, the statement read: “Nigerians are still in a state of shock over reports of how the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Akpabio allegedly bullied officials to pillage the Commission’s foreign currency account; how the laid down procedures of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) are allegedly circumvented to siphon unapproved budgets as well as how innocent workers and federal legislators, who are averse to corrupt practices, were victimised, implicated and even harassed with fetish practices.”

“The allegation by the former NDDC MD that a certain NDDC top notch said he can kill if Senator Akpabio asks him to do so, shows the level of recklessness and the victimisation in MDAs under the APC rule.

“Nigerians will recall that our party had in April, alerted of massive looting in the NDDC and called for investigation, which was however not addressed by the government.

“Our party had also alerted that the NDDC management has not been able to give cogent explanation to the reported Lassa fever contract fraud through which over N4 billion naira NDDC fund was alleged to have been frittered on hazy procurement deals.

“This is in addition to the alleged N5.5 billion COVID-19 scandal which trails reports that the NDDC had already spent over N1.045 billion purportedly for supply of kits and palliatives to Nigerians in nine states.

“The PDP holds that any credible administration like the one the APC and the Buhari Presidency would want Nigerians to believe as running, would have spoken out and commenced immediate investigation into the matter, if its officials are not complicit.”

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