The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as spine-chilling and
mind-boggling the massive looting of the nation’s treasury by public
officials, saying nothing but the total recovery of the funds will be
acceptable to all patriotic Nigerians.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said anyone who attempts, either
by deeds or words, to sabotage the recovery efforts is not a patriot and
deserves nothing but public opprobrium.
It therefore thanked Nigerians for their overwhelming support for the
Buhari Administration in its tough but important task of tracing and
recovering the loots, while also ensuring that the looters face justice.
”It is absolutely gratifying that Nigerians are vehemently opposed to the
few who would rather have the government of the day turn a blind eye to
the looted funds and, in their words, carry on with the process of
governance.
”Truly, what sort of governance can go on if the billions of Naira in a
few hands are not recovered? In the first instance, the government needs
every kobo of the funds it can muster to bring about the change it has
promised Nigerians.
Secondly, leaving such hair-raising funds in the hands of the few looters
is dangerous, because they can use the funds to destabilize any
government.
In fact, no one will be surprised if the looters use their dirty funds to
sponsor public demonstrations against the government’s determination to
recover the funds.
”Thirdly, allowing those who privatized the commonwealth to get away is
offering a thumbs-up for looting. No responsible government will do that,”
APC said.
The party said that already, the looters have embarked on a relentless and
an increasingly-bold campaign to discredit the government of the day and
sabotage the funds’ recovery process, using newspaper columnists, ‘talking
heads’ and otherwise respectable opinion leaders.
”They and their paid hirelings have tried to employ sophistry to muddle
the waters, but Nigerians are much wiser, and will not succumb to the
dirty antics of the looters’ megaphones,” it said.
APC said it is necessary to remind Nigerians of the kind of massive
looting of the treasury that took place in the past few years, so they can
better appreciate the seriousness of the issue at stake.
It therefore listed some instances of the looting as follows:
– 3.8 trillion Naira out of the 8.1 trillion Naira earned from crude oil
(2012-2015) withheld by NNPC
– 2.1 billion US dollars from Excess Crude Account unaccounted for –
Department of Petroleum Resources’ unremitted 109.7 billion Naira royalty
from oil firms
– 6 billion US dollars allegedly looted by some Ministers of the last
Administration
– 160 billion barrels of crude worth 13.9 billion US dollars lost between
2009 and 2012
– 15 million US dollars from botched arms deal yet to be returned to Nigeria
- 13 billion US dollars in NLNG dividends mostly unaccounted
for - 30 billion Naira rice waiver
- 183 billion naira unaccounted for at the NDDC
The party said the listed ‘missing’ funds constituted just a tip of the
iceberg since they are mostly from a few sectors of the economy, mostly
the oil sector, and were discovered even before the forensic audit now
being undertaken in some key areas.
”The level of looting that went on in other sectors is better imagined,
hence the need for all Nigerians to rally around the Buhari
Administration to recover the loots, bring the looters to justice and to
put in place measures to prevent such looting in the future,” it said.