Presidency’s attack on HSBC hypocritical — Atiku

FORMER Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said that the attack by the presidency on HSBC just because of the bank’s prediction that a second tenure for President Muhammadu Buhari will stagnate the economy is hypocritical.

In a statement that emanated from his Media office in Abuja on Sunday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant said he read the presidency’s reaction to the prediction work amusement.

According to him, most of the debt being incurred by the present administration is being funded by the world’s largest bank.

The statement read: “It is with amusement that we read the statement by the Buhari administration condemning HSBC, the world’s largest bank, simply because HSBC gave a verdict that Buhari’s re-election would spell doom for Nigeria’s economy.

“It is at once comical and pathetic that the Buhari government’s statement called HSBC corrupt.

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“It seems they are unaware that some of the record ₦12 trillion worth of debt which the Buhari administration has saddled Nigeria with is actually funded from HSBC, which is the world’s largest bank.

“When they were taking their money, the ever begging Buhari administration did not know that HSBC was corrupt. It was after the HSBC told the truth about the Buhari government that they knew that the HSBC is keeping looted funds.”

Atiku observed that in its statement, the Presidency called HSBC ‘A bank that soiled its hand with ‘‘millions of US dollars yet-to-be-recovered Abacha loot,’ but that “they forgot that their principal, Muhammadu Buhari said: ‘Abacha did not steal,’ So if Abacha did not steal, how could HSBC keep recovered Abacha loot? When you tell so many lies, you begin to contradict yourself.”

The former Vice President noted that fact remains that Nigeria under Buhari has been adjudged as the world headquarters for extreme poverty by the World Economic Forum and the World Poverty Clock as well as the British Prime Minister, Theresa May. Are these people also corrupt?” He asked b

The statement added: “Only last month, the National Bureau of Statistics revealed that our second quarter GDP growth rate was lower than our first quarter GDP growth. Another quarter of negative growth and Nigeria will enter a second recession under the Buhari administration.

“The same NBS published in December 2017 that 7.9 million Nigerians lost their jobs in 21 months under Buhari’s watch.

“These are the things that the government should be focused on and not to haul infantile insults at the world’s largest bank.”