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By Steve Agbota
All Progressives Congress (APC) has flayed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over its call for the dismissal of Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and suspended Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Usman, for alleged non-remittances of funds from the ports management agency.
the party, in a statement, yesterday, by Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) and signed by John James Akpanudoedehe, said PDP has no capacity to criticise President Muhammadu Buhari’s government on its fight against corruption.
“We read the nonsensical statement by the PDP against Amaechi and the suspended Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman, in connection with the routine administrative inquiry approved by President Buhari into the activities of NPA.
“We also note the shameful attempt by the PDP to libellously drag Amaechi’s spouse (who has never held public office and is not a politician) into the realm of politics, and libellously malign her with its fictional tale of looting the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
“While inaugurating the panel on Monday to probe the activities of the NPA, the transportation minister was abundantly clear that no one has been indicted of anything. And the probe is in line with the routine discharge of the duties and functions of the Ministry of Transportation’s supervisory mandate over the NPA.
“The fact that the APC-led government of President Buhari approved the probe of the NPA is a clear testimony of the president’s belief in transparency, good governance and adherence to the rules in public service.
“It further reinforces President Buhari’s zero tolerance for corruption in his administration. Compare and contrast with the years of PDP and all anyone would find are 16 years of plundering of our collective wealth, the desecration of our public institutions and their values. No public institution was spared.
“Shamelessly, the PDP was quick to mention the spouse of Amaechi over a phantom story of imaginary money looted from the NDDC, concocted by one of its own, a known PDP sympathiser. It is an irony that the PDP whose public officers’ family members and cronies collectively looted our country with many charged to court for financial crimes and money laundering offences, would based on fiction, slander the spouse of an APC public official.
“While we do not intend to go low as the PDP, we want to remind the party that Nigerians still remember vividly the billions of naira, millions of dollars of stolen state funds that were either recovered or confiscated from immediate-past PDP public officials, their family members and cronies.
“We urge the PDP to allow us focus on cleaning the daunting mess they left behind in the Niger Delta, like most facets of our country.”
