Aisha Buhari’s N500bn fraud revelation vindicates us ― PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the revelation by wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, that there is humongous fraud in the N500billion Social Investment Programme and the N16billion Mosquito Net Project of the Buhari administration, has further vindicated its stance that the administration is deceitful and a pretentious citadel of corruption.

The main opposition party said in a statement issued by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, in Abuja on Sunday that Aisha’s revelation has further shown that the PDP has not been crying wolf by insisting that President Muhammadu Buhari must account for the trillions of naira stolen under his watch in the last four years.

The statement added: “More disheartening is the fact that the said funds were meant for the welfare of the poor, whom Mr President had always claimed to represent in government.

“Unfortunately, these poor Nigerians have been waiting endlessly for the failed social investments promised by President Buhari only to have their hopes dashed as revelations by Mrs Buhari had shown that the money provided for the programme had been stolen.”

The PDP held that now that the truth has been revealed by no lesser Nigerian than Mr President’s wife, the National Assembly and all anti-corruption agencies should immediately commence forensic investigation how these funds were dispensed and utilised.

The statement added: “Nigerians can now see how the same administration president over by ‘Mr. Integrity’ has been using the names of innocent poor Nigerians to loot our national treasury and fritter away billions of naira to finance their wasteful lifestyle while Nigerians wallow in abject poverty.

“It is indeed appalling that the Buhari administration would be sitting on such colossal corruption and continues to thrive in evil concealment while diverting public attention from their rot by hounding innocent opposition figures on trump-up corruption charges.”

The PDP said it had always maintained that no matter how much deceit and falsehood appear to thrive, the truth must prevail at the end of the day.

It, therefore, charged President Buhari to speak out on the matter and immediately commence the process of recovering the money and channelling it for the benefit of the poor Nigerians.

Speaking at an interactive session with women at the State House, Abuja, on Saturday, the wife of the President had said that the implementation of Social Investment Programmes (SIP) has failed in the north.

She said: “Concerning the N500bn voted for SIP, that was part of 2015 campaigns where they promised to give out N10,000, feed pupils in primary schools and give N5,000 to the poorest of the poorer.

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“The SSA to the president on social investment is a lady from Kano and I’m sure that my husband decided to put somebody from Kano because of the population and political impact it made.

“I have never asked how money is being used or is being given out. I met Barrister (one of the presidential aides on SIP) once and he promised me that for my state (Adamawa) we should get 30,000 women to be given N10,000. Up till now, I haven’t heard from him.

“I don’t want to raise the alarm that my state does not benefit from it, where SGF came from, I kept quiet because I don’t want people to say that I talk too much.

“Recently I saw a 74-year-old man selling petty things in Kano, I asked him how much is his capital, he told me between N3,000 and N4,000. Don’t forget that we have campaigned to give the poorest of the poor, N5,000 every month.

“So I don’t know where the social investment. Maybe, it worked out in some states. In my own state, only a local government benefited out of the 22. I didn’t ask what happened and I don’t want to know but for it fail woefully in Kano, it’s not a good sign and it’s not a good thing.

“We have a lot of women that do business locally due to the cultural thing in the north, that are at home doing their businesses. Some are millionaires, some have thousands of naira, they need the assistance but they do not get it. Most northern women do not belong to any market association.

“I was expecting that N500bn to be utilised in different methods in the north for the aim to be achieved. I don’t know the method they used but most of the northern states do not get it. My state does not get it.”

When she asked the women in the hall how many of them got in their states, they said they did not receive.

Mrs. Buhari went on: “It worked out well in a situation whereby they have market associations but I was thinking different methods should be used in the North.”

She has also expressed reservations on the $16million counterpart fund expended on mosquito nets, saying: “I have heard about mosquito nets, Nigeria paid its counterpart fund, $16m. I asked them to give my own share of the nets to send it to my village people. I didn’t get it.

“They have spent $16million on buying mosquito nets, I did not get it, maybe some people have gotten it. But I feel that that’s my personal opinion, $16m is enough to fumigate mosquitoes in Nigeria. That’s my opinion.”