APC cleaning up PDP’s Augean years – Lai Mohammed

APC cleaning up PDP’s Augean years – Lai Mohammed

ON November 12, 2017 6:47 PM / IN News / BY Ugoh Solomon Chinonso
… says it will be double tragedy if PDP comes back to power
By Emmanuel Elebeke
ABUJA – Minister of Information and Culture, Alh. Lai Mohammed says the Mohammadu Buhari led Administration of the All Progressive Congress, APC is cleaning up rot of the the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP years of misrule and warned against returning the party back to power in 2019.
The minister gave the warning on Sunday during a press conference held in Lagos.
He said ‘‘it will not just be a tragedy, but a double tragedy, ‘if we ever allow these same people to preside over our commonwealth.’’
According to him, ‘‘It is a mark of the contempt for the PDP to tell Nigerians that the party is even talking of returning to power, even when the rot it left behind is yet to be totally cleared, adding that ‘‘Never again must Nigeria be bedeviled by a rapacious, impunity-prone and plunderous party like the PDP.’’
The minister had in another press conference held last week, said that ‘‘it will be a tragedy if the PDP is ever allowed to come back, especially because the present Administration has been working round the clock to take Nigeria out of the hell hole where it was dumped by the PDP.’’
Mohammed, who frowned at the recent attacks against present Administration from the opposition party, boasted that the Administration had made progress in the fight against corruption; fight against insecurity and
the revamping of the economy.
He said: ‘‘Nothing shows the rot of the past more than the level of corruption which this Administration inherited. Our commonwealth was looted with impunity by the same people who now say they want to come back.
‘‘Where do we start? Do we want a Diezani back as Petroleum Minister, after the recovery of at least 43 million dollars and 56 houses from this one person?
‘‘Do we want the 2.9 billion dollars – that’s about one-eighth of the 2018 Budget – that has been successfully traced and recovered from looters by the EFCC since the inauguration of the present administration, to be re-looted? What about the 151 million dollars and N8 billion in looted funds that have been recovered from just three sources as a direct result of the introduction of the whistle-blower policy? Do we want them to be re-looted?’’
Continuing, the minister also questioned the alleged persistent under-remittance of operating surpluses by State Owned Entities under the PDP, in which JAMB was said to have only remitted an aggregate of 51 million Naira, whereas in September 2017 alone, the same JAMB announced its readiness to remit 7.8 billion Naira back to the Government.
‘‘In their time, they lacked the political will to implement the Treasury Single Account (TSA), which they started. We are now fully implementing the TSA. Three trillion Naira, almost half of the estimated revenue in the 2018 budget, has accrued to Government with the enforcement of the TSA policy
‘‘With the elimination of thousands of ghost workers, we have saved 120 billion Naira. We have removed the 108 billion Naira in maintenance fees payable to banks, pre-TSA; and monthly we are saving 24.7 billion Naira with our determined implementation of the TSA.
‘‘We must also never forget the alleged diversion of 2.1 billion dollars earmarked for arms purchase by officials of the immediate-past administration.
‘‘As the pace of politics gradually picks up ahead of 2019, it is important that we let Nigerians know the enormous progress that the Buhari Administration has made in just a little over two years, and to also remind them of where the country was dumped by the PDP when we assumed office on 29 May 2015,’’ he stated.
On the allegation that the Administration plans to arrest 50 of PDP members for alleged corruption, Mohammed said, wondered why the party is afraid and urged them to face the music, if they must.
he described the anti-corruption as a tough task but said the Administration is determined to wipe away corruption in the system.
‘‘It is a mark of the contempt in which the PDP holds Nigerians that the party is even talking of returning to power, even when the rot it left behind is yet to be totally cleared,’’ he added.