BEVERLY HILLS, May 14, (THEWILL) – The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has said that the latest revelation of a $65 million (N31 billion) fraud in the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) involving President Muhammadu Buhari’s son in-law, Gimba Yau Kumo, confirmed the regime as a sanctuary for fraudsters, treasury looters and common criminals.
The party, in a release signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, Friday charges the ICPC not to succumb to reported pressures from the cabal in the Buhari presidency but to track down Yau Kumo.
The former Managing Director of the FMBN has already been declared wanted
PDP insisted he must be brought to book alongside his accomplices.
The party said it spoke volumes that the Buhari regime had remained silent in the face of this huge fraud involving the President’s son-in-law, whom it described as a beneficiary of the primitive family patronage in the Buhari administration.
The PDP held it as wicked, afflicting and provocative that while millions of hardworking Nigerians could not afford their daily meals and other basic necessities of life due to the misrule and corruption of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its administration, the same citizens were daily assailed by revelations of unbridled treasury looting under President Buhari’s watch.
The statement said: “Is it not provocative that at the time the Buhari administration is moving to cut workers’ salaries; has increased the cost of fuel, electricity and other tariffs; in a country with over 33 percent unemployment and where citizens have been subjected to the worst forms of poverty; government officials, cronies and relations of those in power are busy looting our agencies and carting away our common patrimony?
“It is even more distressing that the looted FMBN money is part of funds contributed by Nigerians to meet their home needs which has instead fallen under the predatory proclivities of the APC administration.”
The party asserted that Nigerians could now see that while the Buhari presidency paraded a “holier than thou attitude,” the nation’s vaults had been laid open for the ruthless pillaging by family members, relations and cronies in the Buhari Presidency.
PDP said: “Only last week, the nation was jolted by reports of the looting of over N165 billion in the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) under the suspended Managing Director, Hadiza Bala Usman and the purview of the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Ameachi, leading to widespread demand for their sack and prosecution.
“This is in addition to the alleged involvement of the wife of the Transportation Minister, Mrs. Edith Amaechi, in the reported N48 billion contract scam currently rocking the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
“Indeed, this APC administration stinks!”
The party urged the Buhari presidency to allow for an open investigation of Mr. President’s son in-law as well as those fingered in the fraud in the NPA and the NDDC.
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
