By Mike Odiakose
Opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Saturday charged Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to stop sermonizing and parading like a saint until he answers to the N33 billion corruption allegations as exposed by the House of
Representatives.
The party said through its Spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan that the Vice President owes it as a personal moral burden, both as a preacher and Professor of law, to directly explain how the fund meant for the wellbeing of Nigerians suffering in the Northeast, was mismanaged under his supervision, instead of the lame attempts to dismiss the allegation and divert public attention from the scandal.
The PDP Spokesman stressed that Nigerians were thoroughly appalled to learn, from the House of Representatives, how Prof. Osinbajo, as Acting President, in June 2017, unilaterally pulled N5.8 billion, from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, purportedly for emergency intervention on food in the
North East, which has now turned scandalous.
“Prof. Osinbajo should explain how, according to findings by the House of
Representatives, all the six states of the Northeast failed to receive the emergency intervention for food security, for which a major part of the money was claimed to have been expended, under his direct supervision as Chairman of Board of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
“What has Prof. Osinbajo to say on the revelation at the public hearing conducted by the House of Representatives that there was no evidence the World Food Programme (WFP) received the 5000 metric tons of rice, which
NEMA claimed to have bought and donated to WFP for distribution to victims of insurgency in the region?
“What has our Vice President to say to the report indicating that four of the companies that supplied food items to the region financed their projects through N2bn they each received as loan from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)?
“What is his answer to the huge allegations in the public domain that bulk of the money meant for suffering Nigerians in the Northeast was diverted to private pockets of key All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Presidency cabal to finance their wasteful lifestyle?”
The opposition party stressed that they are privy to the frantic effort by agents of the Presidency and the APC to arm-twist and intimidate the House of Representatives to abort its investigation and to ensure that the report does not see the light of day
“If Prof. Osinbajo had no ulterior intentions, why did he pull the money
from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation without recourse to
the statutory appropriation of the National Assembly?
“The PDP holds that the action of the Vice President in unilaterally
approving the release of the money to NEMA, where he also presides as
the Chairman of Board is completely self-serving and ostensibly
conceived and executed in corrupt intentions.
“Instead of answering to the allegation, Prof. Osinbajo is employing
rhetoric to divert attention, claiming that his actions are covered by
his apparent abuse of Section 43 of the Procurement Act.
“We invite the Vice President to note that Section 43 of the Procurement
Act deals with the emergency duties of a procuring entity and not the
processes of drawing funds from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the
Federation which is covered by the Constitution. As such, there is no
way he can justify his actions under any of our laws.
“The Vice President should therefore advice himself properly by
responding to the huge corruption questions and stop his unnecessary
posturing.”
