The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has challenged the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate in the 2019 general election, Atiku Abubakar to account for the alleged failed $460 million Abuja Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) awarded in August 2010, by the PDP administration.
The APC also asked PDP to give an account of the over $2billion China loan its administration allegedly took between 2010 and 2013.
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But the PDP said the attempt by the APC to “trivialize the mortgaging of the nation by raising frivolous allegations” against it validated APC’s alleged complicity in the pawning of the country to foreign interests.
Atiku and the PDP in two different statements issued on Sunday asked President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC to apologise to Nigerians for collecting loans amounting to trillions of Naira.
Reacting, the APC in a statement on Monday, by its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena said the PDP should explain the status of the $16billion spent on power “with no electricity, fuel subsidy rackets, counter-insurgency funds that were diverted and shared to political cronies among other shocking heists.
“Recall that the failed CCTV installation project was initiated by late President Umaru Yar’Adua and awarded in August 2010 by former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to help security agencies in the Federal Capital Territory check the growing insecurity.
“Since the agreement became signed, Nigeria has been servicing this loan to China while Nigerians are yet to attest to the visibility of CCTV project and unable to explain the status of the video surveillance project. The matter is subject to a legislative probe,” the APC said.
In another response, the PDP in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan said, “APC’s jaundiced reaction to the attempt to send a future generation of Nigerians to China on slavery shows that the APC is anti-people and has no remorse for the wrongdoing of its leaders and government.
“Our party takes exception to the purported challenge by the APC and we counsel the APC to first give an account of the N800 billion it claimed to have recovered, as Nigerians have regrettably come to discover that the APC thrives on fraud and corruption,” the party added.
