From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party( PDP), yesterday, berated the Presidency over comments that governors elected on its platform were peddling fake news.
The party in a statement by Kola Ologbondiyan, described the comments by the Presidency as “un-presidential and pedestrian.”
He alleged it was President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC who came to power through fake news and falsehood and have been sustaining the vice in the past six years.
The party hinged the attack on PDP governors to pointing out failures of Buhari government and proffering solutions to challenges facing the country.
“It is on record that they (PDP governors) attend to the wishes of Nigerians in their respective states and do not by any whim, recourse to peddling of fake news and lies like the Buhari Presidency and his All Progressives Congress (APC)
“Nigerians will not forget how President Buhari and his party came to power by means of fake news, lies, falsehood, fake promises, deceit, beguilements and negative innuendos, a scope they have widened and deepened in the last six years.
“Recently, President Buhari openly resorted to false claims when he told Nigerians that his administration has pulled out 10.5million Nigerians out of poverty in the last two years, only for the World Bank to do a fact check and discovered that, to the contrary, 7.8 million Nigerians have rather been dragged below the poverty line in the last 12 months.
“It would also be recalled that in fishing for lies to justify its unwarranted ban on Twitter, the Buhari-led Federal Government alleged that Twitter makes ‘billions of naira’ in Nigeria, only for fact checks to reveal the contrary. Nigerians have not forgotten how the Buhari administration scammed Nigerians with a non-existent national carrier for which billions of naira was funnelled out of the treasury in one of the biggest lies a government ever told its citizens.”
Meanwhile, the PDP has challenged the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) to name the minister allegedly involved in $37.5 million property scandal.
The party said the EFCC revelation was an indication that President Buhari’s anti-graft war is a circus show.
The opposition party noted that it was aware of how cabinet ministers, including those indicted for siphoning and diverting funds meant for parastatals and agencies under their purview were allegedly being shielded from prosecution.
Said Ologbondiyan: “Our party challenges the EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, to name the said female minister and stop the famous process of easing out corrupt people in Buhari’s cabinet. Nigerians are invited to note how ministers in the Buhari administration have not been prosecuted despite reports of seething treasury looting in the Treasury Single Account as well as revenue generating and controlling agencies such as Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Nigerian Ports Authority, Federal Inland Revenue Service, National Emergency Management Agency, Niger Delta Development Commission and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, EFCC.”
Besides, the party added that it is appalled by media reports that the Federal Government has failed to pay the 774,000 youths recruited from the 774 local government areas across the country under the Extended Special Public Works.