Investigation of NPA shows Buhari zero tolerance for corruption, APC replies PDP

The All Progressives Congress Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) has said the removal of the Managing Director (MD) of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman by President Muhammadu Buhari and the inauguration of an investigative panel by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi have reinforced the present administration’s stance on zero tolerance for corruption.

National Secretary of the CECPC, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe, made the submission in a statement in Abuja.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had in a statement on Monday called for the prosecution of the transportation minister and the axed former MD of the NPA over alleged financial sleaze to the tune of N165 billion in the revenue-generating agency.

But Akpanudoedehe dismissed the call by the main opposition party as nonsensical.

He maintained that the panel set up by Amaechi was a routine discharge of the duties and functions of the ministry of transportation’s supervisory mandate over the NPA.

The national secretary further maintained that the allegation against Honourable Amaechi’s wife involvement in contract scam in the federal government intervention agency, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was unfounded.

The APC declared that the “PDP is still living in their alternate reality in which corruption, aided by their family members and cronies was approved statecraft. For the PDP that looted everything in sight during the 16 years it held this country to ransom, it is understandable that it is still unable to understand a routine administrative probe.”

The statement further read in part: “While inaugurating the panel on Monday to probe the activities of the NPA, the transportation minister was abundantly clear that no one has been indicted of anything. And the probe is in line with the routine discharge of the duties and functions of the ministry of transportation’s supervisory mandate over the NPA.

“The fact that the APC-led government of President Buhari approved the probe of the NPA is a clear testimony of the president’s belief in transparency, good governance and adherence to the rules in public service. It further reinforces President Buhari’s zero tolerance for corruption in his administration.

“Compare and contrast this with the years of PDP and all anyone would find are 16 years of plundering of our collective wealth, the desecration of our public institutions and their values. No public institution was spared.

“Shamelessly, the PDP was quick to mention the spouse of Amaechi, over a phantom story of imaginary money looted from the NDDC, concocted by one of their own, a known PDP sympathizer.

“It is an irony that the PDP whose public officers’ family members and cronies collectively looted our country with many charged to court for financial crimes and money laundering offences, would based on fiction, slander the spouse of an APC public official. While we do not intend to go low as the PDP, we want to remind them that Nigerians still remember vividly the billions of Naira, millions of dollars of stolen state funds that were either recovered or confiscated from immediate-past PDP public officials, their family members and cronies.

“Yes, Nigerians are appalled, but not by the concocted story of looting against Amaechi’s spouse in NDDC but by the known fact that after many years of being in control of the NDDC, several PDP government officials, their family members and cronies salted away the enormous funds that accrued to the NDDC that was meant for the development of the Niger Delta region. We urge the PDP to allow us focus on cleaning the daunting mess they left behind in the Niger Delta, like most facets of our country.

“To be clear, ‘corruption personified,’ which the PDP represents, is in no position to pontificate or even point fingers at the APC on the ongoing fight against corruption.”

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