….Says we have been vindicated
By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has charged Nigerians to join in the demand for the All Progressives Congress, APC, to commence the processes of refunding the N15 trillion allegedly stolen by its leaders before exiting the nation’s political firmament in 2023.
The PDP said this in reaction to the latest rating by the Transparency International, TI, which showed Nigeria plunging to149th on the corruption perception index in 2020; dropping 13 places since 2015, under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The party, in a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan in Abuja, said that the 2020 corruption index report on Nigeria by Transparency International (TI), has further confirmed that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government is the most corrupt administration in the history of the nation.
Nigerians, the PDP said, can now see that what the APC and the Buhari presidency did, upon assumption of office, was to simulate a holier than thou attitude, deploy the instrument of propaganda to deliberately castigate the PDP with false corruption allegations just to divert public attention and create a safe atmosphere for APC leaders to loot our nation to her knees.
The main opposition party stressed that no matter how lies and falsehood try to prevail, the truth will always come to light at the end of the day.
According to the statement, “The PDP asserts that the TI report, which shows our country plunging to a putrid 149th on the corruption perception index in 2020; dropping 13 places since 2015, under the watch of ‘Mr Integrity’, is an incontrovertible confirmation that our nation is more corrupt under President Buhari and the APC, than it was in 2015 when they took office.
“This descent into the abyss of corruption only goes to show that President Buhari’s anti-corruption stance is a mere swindle used to delude Nigerians while the vaults were laid open for APC leaders and officials of the Buhari administration to plunder.
“Indeed, the record of unbroken decline from 136th in 2016 to 144th in 2018, 146th in 2019 and now 149th in 2020, under President Buhari, the African Union (AU) Anti-Corruption Champion’, settles the now notorious fact that the Buhari administration and the APC are titleholders in corruption.
“Nigerians can now see that what the APC and the Buhari Presidency did, upon assumption of office, was to simulate a holier than thou attitude, deploy the instrument of propaganda to deliberately castigate the PDP with false corruption allegations just to divert public attention and create a safe atmosphere for APC leaders to loot our nation to her knees.
“The fact remains that no matter how lies and falsehood try to prevail, the truth will always come to light at the end of the day.
“From the oil and inland revenue sectors to security, health, agriculture, food security, healthcare, transportation, road infrastructure, power, education, environment, among other critical sectors, none was spared from the kleptomaniac fingers of corrupt APC leaders and the cabal in the Presidency.
“Nigerians can now see that our alert on the allegation of the stealing of over N15 trillion by APC leaders and political cronies in the Presidency, was not just an opposition propaganda but a patriotic stance which the APC and its administration has not been able to counter”, it said.