The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as spine-chilling and
\nmind-boggling the massive looting of the nation\u2019s treasury by public
\nofficials, saying nothing but the total recovery of the funds will be
\nacceptable to all patriotic Nigerians.<\/p>\n
In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity
\nSecretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said anyone who attempts, either
\nby deeds or words, to sabotage the recovery efforts is not a patriot and
\ndeserves nothing but public opprobrium.<\/p>\n
It therefore thanked Nigerians for their overwhelming support for the
\nBuhari Administration in its tough but important task of tracing and
\nrecovering the loots, while also ensuring that the looters face justice.<\/p>\n
\u201dIt is absolutely gratifying that Nigerians are vehemently opposed to the
\nfew who would rather have the government of the day turn a blind eye to
\nthe looted funds and, in their words, carry on with the process of
\ngovernance.<\/p>\n
\u201dTruly, what sort of governance can go on if the billions of Naira in a
\nfew hands are not recovered? In the first instance, the government needs
\nevery kobo of the funds it can muster to bring about the change it has
\npromised Nigerians.<\/p>\n
Secondly, leaving such hair-raising funds in the hands of the few looters
\nis dangerous, because they can use the funds to destabilize any
\ngovernment.<\/p>\n
In fact, no one will be surprised if the looters use their dirty funds to
\nsponsor public demonstrations against the government\u2019s determination to
\nrecover the funds.<\/p>\n
\u201dThirdly, allowing those who privatized the commonwealth to get away is
\noffering a thumbs-up for looting. No responsible government will do that,\u201d
\nAPC said.<\/p>\n
The party said that already, the looters have embarked on a relentless and
\nan increasingly-bold campaign to discredit the government of the day and
\nsabotage the funds\u2019 recovery process, using newspaper columnists, \u2018talking
\nheads\u2019 and otherwise respectable opinion leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201dThey and their paid hirelings have tried to employ sophistry to muddle
\nthe waters, but Nigerians are much wiser, and will not succumb to the
\ndirty antics of the looters\u2019 megaphones,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
APC said it is necessary to remind Nigerians of the kind of massive
\nlooting of the treasury that took place in the past few years, so they can
\nbetter appreciate the seriousness of the issue at stake.<\/p>\n
It therefore listed some instances of the looting as follows:<\/p>\n
\u2013 3.8 trillion Naira out of the 8.1 trillion Naira earned from crude oil
\n(2012-2015) withheld by NNPC<\/p>\n
\u2013 2.1 billion US dollars from Excess Crude Account unaccounted for \u2013
\nDepartment of Petroleum Resources\u2019 unremitted 109.7 billion Naira royalty
\nfrom oil firms<\/p>\n
\u2013 6 billion US dollars allegedly looted by some Ministers of the last
\nAdministration<\/p>\n
\u2013 160 billion barrels of crude worth 13.9 billion US dollars lost between
\n2009 and 2012<\/p>\n
\u2013 15 million US dollars from botched arms deal yet to be returned to Nigeria<\/p>\n
\u200b- 13 billion US dollars\u200b in NLNG dividends mostly unaccounted
\nfor \u200b- 30 billion Naira rice waiver\u200b<\/p>\n
\u200b- 183 billion naira\u200b unaccounted for at the NDDC \u200b \u200b<\/p>\n
The party said the listed \u2018missing\u2019 funds constituted just a tip of the
\niceberg since they are mostly from a few sectors of the economy, mostly
\nthe oil sector, and were discovered even before the forensic audit now
\nbeing undertaken in some key areas.<\/p>\n
\u201dThe level of looting that went on in other sectors is better imagined,
\nhence the need for all Nigerians to rally around the Buhari
\nAdministration to recover the loots, bring the looters to justice and to
\nput in place measures to prevent such looting in the future,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as spine-chilling and mind-boggling the massive looting of the nation\u2019s treasury by public officials, saying nothing but the total recovery of the funds…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n