The about N1.4 trillion naira claimed to have been spent on oil subsidy by the Federal Government has once again come under scrutiny as the People’s Democratic Party is demanding for a panel of inquiry to be set up to determine the source and eventual receivers of the said money.

 

 

Kola Ologbondiyan, the party’s National Publicity Secretary in a statement in Abuja on Sunday said the investigation will not only expose humongous corruption but also show the world that Nigeria’s African Union (AU) Anti-Corruption champion had not been totally spotless.

 

 

He said the demand by state governors to probe all subsidy deals since 2015 is a direct indictment on President Muhammadu Buhari as the Minister of Petroleum, particularly, following allegations that the stolen funds are being warehoused to fund his 2019 re-election bid and the opulent lifestyle in the Presidential Villa.

 

 

“The party notes that if President Buhari allowed the inquest, it will reveal how our president, who had queried the genuineness of the oil subsidy payments by PDP administration and described the process as a fraud, had secretly engaged in underhand oil subsidy deals.

 

 

“Nigerians will also understand how the cost of fuel geometrically rose from the PDP subsidized cost of N87 to N145, representing a criminal N58 tax, per liter of fuel,” he said.

 

 

Additionally, Ologbondiyan said the investigation should also cover the alleged N15 billion stolen from the NHIS, the N18 billion stolen from the PINE initiative, the alleged leaked memo of N9 trillion corrupt oil contracts at the NNPC as well as the reported diversion of N1.1trillion worth of crude in 2017.

 

 

Photo Credit: cknnigeria.com