The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed shock over the silence of President Muhammadu Buhari on the petition of Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources, noting that the allegations are “too grave to be swept under the carpet”
Kachikwu had accused Maikanti Baru, group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), of insubordination.
In a statement on Thursday, Dayo Adeyeye, spokesman of the PDP, said the president had been silent on “humongous corruption scandal and other illegalities currently being exposed at the nation’s cash cow”.
He said the PDP expected Buhari who prides himself as “an indefatigable corruption fighter, would for once try to live above board, by genuinely allowing one of his own, accused of corruption, get properly investigated and prosecuted as a show of his impartiality in the war against corruption”.
“We view the allegations levelled against Baru by Kachikwu as too grave to be swept under the carpet and we insist that the NNPC GMD must be treated like an accused who should not have the opportunity to influence investigation into his alleged misdeeds,” the statement read.
“In this light, we demand an immediate suspension of the NNPC GMD so that proper investigation can be carried out by the relevant anti-corruption agencies.
“Ordinarily if there was sincerity in the anti-corruption war, President Muhammadu Buhari should not have waited for any prompting before he takes a decisive action on this matter, but as customary with his administration, we suspect that he’s trying to shield Baru as he did for Babachir Lawal, the secretary to the government of the federation (SGF) whom he merely suspended to allow the hullabaloo generated by the fraud perpetrated in the management of the emergency fund for the IDPs, die down.
“Also up till now, we have never heard anything again about the millions of dollars and billions of naira discovered at an Ikoyi apartment.
“Nigerians have not forgotten the acts of illegality and double standard perpetrated by the president in refusing to hand over Babachir Lawal to the EFCC for proper investigation and possible prosecution for graft, but rather, preferring to give the task of investigation of the open sleaze to the vice-president, in a move not known to any law of this nation.
“Even at that, the report of the Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo led committee is gathering dust on the shelf of the President because he probably could not bear to see one of his closest allies punished by the laws of the land, even when all facts show that blatant and unbridled theft was perpetrated by the president’s man.
“The sum involved in the NNPC scandal is $25 billion. Less than 10% percent of that ($2 billion) is involved in the so-called arms fund allegedly converted by the former NSA for which hundreds of Nigerians have been arrested and hounded. Nigerians can now see the hypocrisy in the so-called anti-corruption fight. We may as well say that the privileged class of APC members enjoys total immunity from the anti-corruption campaign.
“The PDP reiterate our support for the drive to eliminate corruption from the workings of the Nigerian government, but we hold firmly to our stance that the APC Government under president Buhari must lead and live by example. We say no to soft landing to corruption; and corrupt members of the APC government. We say no to double standard in the fight against corruption.”
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