Unfreeze Benue, Akwa Ibom accounts now, PDP tells Buhari

THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has charged President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately order the unfreezing of the official accounts of Akwa-Ibom and Benue States which it said were illegally blocked by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), “as such is a direct attack on innocent Nigerians in those states.”

In a statement issued by Kola Ologbondiyan its National Publicity Secretary in Abuja on Wednesday, the party condemned the freezing “as illegal, unconstitutional, overtly wicked and cannot be justified under any guise within the clear dictates and contemplation of our laws and practice as a nation.”

The PDP rejected the action of the Federal Government and counselled the Buhari Presidency not to hide under the EFCC to unleash punishment and hardship on the people in states perceived to be averse to his 2019 re-election bid.

It added: “In illegally blocking the flow of funds to these states, the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government has ostensibly commenced a reprehensible design of using economic deprivation as a political tool to arm-twist governors and states to support President Buhari’s re-election in 2019.

“The APC has been seeking ways to subjugate Nigerians, for which it has now resorted to subjecting millions of compatriots already impoverished by the misrule of the Buhari administration, to face more hardship by seizing funds legally belonging to them.

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“Nigerians are all aware that no section of our constitution or any law in Nigeria for that matter confers any agency of the Federal Government with powers to interfere or put any restrictions on funds belonging or accruable to states as federating units of our nation.

“Apart from its State Assembly, no other government body or institution has the powers of appropriation or restrictions on any funds belonging to the state.”

The PDP, therefore, urged all Nigerians to stand up and resist this dangerous trend introduced by the “desperate APC to subjugate Nigerians, for which Akwa-Ibom and Benue states are now being used to test the will of the people in this direction.”