The ruling All Progressives Congress on Saturday said only Peoples Democratic Party looters have been sent out of their illegitimate jobs and not the “fictitious” 40 million Nigerians quoted by the opposition party.
The ruling party said the President Muhammadu Buhari, was determined to take the fight against corruption deeper and that more looters under the PDP should be ready to go to jail.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Lanre Issa-Onilu, the APC lamented that the past PDP governments superintended over massive treasury looting.
The statement said, “For 16 years, several leaders of the PDP were having a bazaar over our commonwealth in their reckless and senseless race to produce world’s highest number of billionaires whose only enterprise was stealing from the public purse.
“During this period of calamitous heist, thousands of the PDP members also held Nigeria by the throat in an unpatriotic race to help themselves to our collective resources. The entire public sector, in collaboration with willing players from the private sector, was neck-deep in fleecing the treasury.”
“At a period of surplus, when crude oil price rose to as much as $140, successive PDP governments supervised a massive scrambling for cheap money. Alongside the fuel subsidy racket, diversion of counter-insurgency funds to the PDP leaders and cronies, they awarded roads, railways, power plants, airport terminals, dredging of waterways, bridges, and many other projects that Nigeria badly needed, yet delivered nothing. The projects were mere decoy and conduits for looting the treasury. With billions of dollars stolen, the APC government inherited a decrepit country from the PDP.”
The APC boasted that the government had not only been putting these looters out of jobs but working relentlessly to recover the country’s stolen resources from them.
The statement added, “We are glad that Nigerians are seeing positive results of the current administration’s efforts. Hundreds of looters are being prosecuted, assets illegally acquired and unexplainable wealth are being recovered, while a number of them are spending time in jail.
“Many more will be on their way to jail soon. A number of them are on the run and we are collaborating with the international community to bring them to justice.
“Meanwhile, as we put the PDP looters out of jobs, we are creating the environment and other support structures for creating legitimate jobs. The outcomes are evident in the construction, manufacturing and agricultural sectors despite the fact that the country is earning far less than what was earned under the PDP.
“Jobs are being created in many productive sectors. Our security agencies are employing more personnel to create jobs and to bolster their capacity to secure lives and property. The year 2020 promises much more in massive infrastructure, solid minerals, oil and gas, and industrialisation.”
