THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Thursday, October 5, alleged that top government officials were keeping “stolen money” in a special pool to prosecute President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term bid.

The PDP specifically alleged that Babachir Lawal, the suspended secretary to the government of the federation, SGF, and Maikanti Baru, the group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, were involved.

‎Addressing a news conference at the Wadata Plaza in Abuja, Dayo Adeyeye, the PDP national publicity secretary, demanded that Buhari should prove them wrong by giving an order to the anti-graft agencies to immediately launch investigation into the $25bn scandal involving Baru in the NNPC.

‎The PDP also demanded that Baru be suspended while others, who might have participated in the alleged “illegal act”, be investigated.

Ibe Kachikwu, the minister of State for Petroleum, ‎had in a letter to Buhari, accused Baru of illegal practices in the NNPC and insubordination.

The PDP said it suspected that powerful people in the corridors of power were “tacitly involved in the scandal rocking the NNPC.”

Adeyeye said, “If the president’s powerful chief of staff, Abba Kyari, could sit on the NNPC board and such a calamity is taking place without an eyelid being blinked, we are forced to believe that the stealing is being done to the advantage of the president who has shown by his body language, that the only thing that matters most to him for now, is his second term ambition.”

But Bolaji Abdullahi, national publicity secretary, All Progressives Congress, APC, has punctured the insinuation in an interview. He challenged the PDP to produce evidence to back up its claim.

Besides, he said the president had not said he would contest in 2019. “So, what they are saying is unwarranted. They are just trading by vendetta and nothing more,” Abdullahi said.

– Oct. 6, 2017 @ 17:05 GMT |