PDP, APC ‘clash’ over alleged fuel subsidy scam

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has said the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) does not have any moral right to caution or query the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

The PDP has consistently bashed the Buhari led government for recently removing fuel subsidy and increasing fuel pump price to N161 per litre.

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But the APC in a statement on Sunday, by its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena said the subsidy regime and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) have been so transparent under the Buhari led administration.

“Under the previous PDP administrations, the same NNPC was accountable to no one to the extent that it owed the government up to the sum of N704 billion for gross violations of the subsidy scheme.

“Between 2006 and 2013, PDP governments spent over N5.42 trillion on subsidy, which was 15.57% higher than the 2014 national budget of N4.69 trillion.

“It was also under the PDP government that the number of fuel importers rose from 5 in 2006 to 10 in 2007, 19 in 2008 and spiked up to 140 in 2011.

“This was one of the biggest causes of corruption because many firms only existed on paper and collected subsidies on fuel that never existed.

“To make matters worse, 60 million barrels of oil valued was stolen under the watch of PDP controlled NNPC between 2009 and 2012.

“The NNPC during the PDP years also failed to remit US$20 billion in oil revenues owed to the nation, which was confirmed by PwC and Deloitte investigative reports. The PDP has no genuine reason to cry wolf or display moral authority over subsidy under the Buhari administration,” the APC said.

But reacting in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan,  the PDP asked the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led APC National Caretaker Committee to stop sending “impostors and charlatans” in his party to insult PDP, apparently refering to Nabena who is not a National Working Committee (NWC) member of the APC.

“It is incontrovertible that contrary to the lies of APC impostors, between 2006 and 2013, successive PDP administrations, effectively managed the resources of our nation and grew our economy to become one of the fastest growing in the world as recorded by Fitch and the IMF.

“Perhaps the APC should be reminded that within this period, the PDP achieved the historical debt relief (of about $18 billion), which freed Nigeria from the suffocating shackles of huge external borrowings of the past.

“It is a fact that during this period, the PDP administrations reduced our nation’s budget deficits by 72%, stabilized our currency and overall economy to achieve the doubling of our GDP within four years from $55.65bn in 2003 to $114.36bn in 2006, as acknowledged by IMF database.

“This is in addition to improving our FDI from less than $700 million per annum in 1999, to $4.3 billion by 2007, which earned Nigeria a BB credit rating by Fitch.

“It is incontrovertible that life was better in our country under the PDP and that the purchasing power of Nigerians in general experienced its highest in our contemporary history under the PDP.

“Our party therefore counsels the APC to rather advise President Buhari to wake up to the demands of governance by ending the corruption in his  oil revenue management, reduce the costs of fuel price and rejig his security and economic teams, instead of this resort to diversionary tactics,” the PDP said.