Uche Secondus
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have failed in their ploy to use their “so-called looters’ lists to divert public discourse from the raging questions on their numerous scandals, manifest sleazes and overall failures in governance.”
The PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, yesterday, said the nation has now seen that the Federal Government has no case against the party, as the lists only have individuals who are not indicted or convicted for corruption, some of who are not even members of the party.
It said that the whole essence of “the flimsy and contemptible lists was to cause public misperception, change the topic, and divert international and national discourse from various serious issues including the parlous state of the nation’s economy caused by President Muhammadu Buhari’s misrule, for which Nigerians are now resorting to vices, including slavery and suicide as options.’’
The PDP also stated that the Federal Government had wanted to divert attention from “the intensive global vote of no confidence on President Buhari-led APC-government, particularly on its painful anti-people policies, as presented in damning verdicts by international figures, the latest being the world renowned Bill Gates; the vote of no confidence on the Buhari administration by eminent statesmen, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former military President Ibrahim Babangida and former minister of defence and ex-chief of army staff, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, who also indicted this administration of failure to protect the citizens.
Other issues which the Federal government wanted to divert attention from according to the party are “the international interest over speculations of conspiracy theorem on the alleged manipulation of security in the abduction and return of the Dapchi schoolgirls for which Amnesty International (AI) has called for an open inquest; international embarrassment over alleged procurement of the Martin Luther King Jr award for President Buhari, which has now attracted global opprobrium to our dear nation and entire citizenry; as well as the Transparency International (TI) latest verdict, indicting the Buhari-led government of superintending over the spiraling of corruption in Nigeria in the last three years.
The opposition party said that “efforts by presidency to conceal the N9 trillion corrupt oil contracts at the NNPC, alleged stealing of N1.1 trillion worth of crude oil, looting of N18 billion Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) intervention fund and the stealing of N10 billion National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), has equally failed.’’
Also yesterday, the party asked Nigerians to hold the APC-led Federal Government directly responsible for the avoidable and painful death of Dr. Ndukwu Chizaram of the Federal Medical Center, Umuahia, Abia State.
It said the medical practitioner had to pay the supreme price over avoidable exposure to Lassa fever, because of the low premium the administration places on the lives of Nigerians and the health sector in particular.
The party described the failure of the Federal Government to provide medical personnel with the requisite equipment and facilities to effectively and safely discharge their duties as absolutely wicked, inhuman and the height of insensitivity.
“While we are deeply pained by this tragedy, we are very worried about the safety of our health personnel in Federal Government’s health facilities following the established lack-lustre approach of the APC administration to health issues in Nigeria.
It is indeed very sad that instead of addressing these health and sundry issues, APC leaders are frittering away our commonwealth on medical tourism in Europe while our hospitals had, in the last three years, sunk from the famed height attained under the PDP to mere consulting centers.”
The party demanded an unreserved apology from the APC and the Federal Government to the family of the doctor and the medical sector in general.
