Top 3 Persons Buhari Must Prosecute If He’s Serious About Anti-Graft War – PDP
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has challenged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to prosecute alleged corrupt officials in this administration.
The PDP named the immediate past Minister of Information, Alh. Lai Mohammed and the just relieved Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Prof. Usman Yusuf, among alleged corrupt officials in the Buhari administration that should be prosecuted.
The opposition party had in a previous press statement said the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, should tend to the alleged corruption allegations levelled against him while he was the former Edo State governor as well as the corruption charges levelled against him the chairman of APC.
The PDP said it “demands the immediate prosecution of the former Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, over his alleged role in the reported National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) N2.5 billion fraud.
It also called for “the immediate prosecution of the sacked Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Prof. Usman Yusuf, over allegations of misappropriation of N919 million as exposed by a ministerial panel.
“The duo must not be left off the hook because of their affiliation with the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Presidency.
“The party insisted that Alhaji Lai Mohammed should be prosecuted alongside the already docked Director General of the NBC, Alhaji Modibbo Kawu, following his statement at the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC).
“The PDP invites Nigerians to note that the ICPC had already indicated, in a press release, that Alhaji Lai Mohammed admitted in a statement to it, that he was “misled” by the Director General of the NBC, who was his subordinate, into approving the payment of the N2.5 billion to a private company.
It claimed that records of the ICPC shows that , “the former minister’s involvement had come under questioning following discovery by the ICPC, during investigations, that a government White Paper that governs the execution of DSO programme was allegedly flouted by the head of the NBC.
“Mohammed had however admitted in a statement to the commission that he was misled by Kawu…”, the ICPC further stated.
“Our party therefore insists that since the ICPC holds that the former minister’s involvement had come under questioning, he should be made to explain himself in the dock, not as a witness but as a defendant in the matter.
“This is a former minister who was in a haste to publish names of innocent Nigerians as looters just because they are members of the PDP, while a humongous fraud simmered under his nose.
Furthermore, the PDP states that the dismissal of the NHIS boss has also vindicated its position that billions of naira belonging to the Scheme and meant for the health needs of Nigerians was being frittered.
“Prof. Yusuf must be prosecuted in order to track and recover the over N25 billion allegedly siphoned from the account of the Scheme in the Treasury Single Account (TSA) to service APC interests,” the PDP said in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, on Tuesday.