By Lateef Ibrahim
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has demanded the arrest and immediate prosecution of the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika for using a non-existent National Carrier to defraud the nation to the tune of N1.2 billion.
The PDP said this in a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan in Abuja.
The party urged President Muhammadu Buhari to speak out “On this act of corruption under his watch”, particularly following allegations that funds released for the phantom project were diverted to finance his 2019 re-election bid.
The opposition party said the purported indefinite suspension of the Nigeria Air project is part of the fraudulent script by the Buhari Presidency, which knows that it cannot go far with the lies, since the project does not exist in the first place.
According to the statement, “It would be recalled that the PDP had in July alerted the nation that the unveiling of a nonexistent National Carrier was a huge scam designed to create an impression of achievement, as well as a conduit by corrupt All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders and the Buhari Presidency to siphon public funds for selfish purposes.
“Nigerians now know that the reason for the rush to London to ‘unveil’ mere drawings of airplanes, name, logo and imaginary routes of a non-existent fleet as our national carrier, without any structures, operational license, clear partnership agreements and no form of ground activity anywhere in our country.
“What the APC and the Buhari Presidency failed to understand is that lies, no matter how ornamented, always have their expiring dates. The truth may be suppressed for a while, but it always has a way of coming to light”, it said.
