By Baron Ike
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has queried the claim by the Federal Government led by the All Progressive Congress (APC) that it expended N24 billion monthly (N774 million per day) to subsidize fuel in the country.
The party said Nigerians would be surprised over the antics of the APC-controlled Federal Government to cover-up “huge fraud in the Presidency.”
“The figures and the purported proliferation of fuel stations, used as alibi for the claimed sudden jump in subsidy pay-out, are fictitious and cleverly fabricated to retire the already exposed stealing of trillions of naira by Presidency cabal and APC interests in secret oil deals.”
Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP National Publicity Secretary, said in a statement on Monday, that “it is duplicitous for the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to claim a sudden surge in fuel purchase expenses at the same time that the nation faced the harshest fuel shortage across the country with Nigerians paying exorbitantly for the product.”
Ologbondiyan said: “The APC-led Presidency is drawing its deceptive proclivity and concealment of fraud too far; and to think that such is hatched in a sector that is under the direct supervision of President Muhammadu Buhari as minister of petroleum affairs is most disheartening.
“This is the same Presidency that claimed to have abolished fuel subsidy payments and even accused the immediate past administration of alleged corruption in its subsidy management.
“It is therefore strange that the same government can pull out unimaginable figures and claim it is the cost of subsidy enjoyed by Nigerians.
“How come that with such humongous sums, Nigerians are still paying as high as N250 to N300 per litre on fuel in various parts of the country?”
Ologbondiyan said the PDP had since “charged the Buhari-led Presidency to come out clear on the
truth on the administration of subsidy under its watch, ”and asked; Why is the Federal Government cloaking the subsidy regime in secrecy if not to conceal its duplicity?
He said Nigerians need to know who in the Presidency approved the spending of the said N774 million per day as fuel subsidy and who are the benefiting companies?
The statement continued: “Is the subsidy captured in any appropriation instrument of the National Assembly? What is the cost of landing imported fuel to the depots and at what exchange rate? Where are the details of the subsidy pay-out and the negotiating options and contracts?
“In reeling out its figures, the Presidency has forgotten that Nigerians are still waiting for its explanations on the leaked memo showing alleged corrupt oil contracts at the NNPC to the tune of N9 trillion ($25billion dollars).
“The Presidency has also refused to offer explanations to the alleged involvement of its officials in various sneaky oil subsidy deals and reported diversion of N1.1trillion worth of crude last year to service APC interests.
“Our take is that Nigerians must be told the truth at all times and not be made to suffer for the fraud being perpetrated by APC interests and the cabal at the Presidency.”