PDP accuses Buhari of ‘shielding’ indicted APC members while EFCC pick up its members

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said on Sunday that the investigation of Godswill Akpabio, the Senate Minority Leader, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was politically motivated. The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, at a press conference in Abuja, noted that the investigation was also aimed at weakening PDP ahead of 2019 elections.

Metuh said that verifiable reports from PDP key members revealed that agents of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had approached them to join the APC with threats to victimise them with EFCC should they refuse. 

He said that this clearly explained why the fight against corruption had been selective and focused against PDP members, “in spite counsels by stakeholders that it should be holistic and with due process”.

Metuh noted that while former PDP governors and ministers were being arrested over orchestrated petitions, their APC counterparts, with more damaging petitions were being shielded by the presidency and even nominated for ministerial positions.

“Whereas the former APC governors of Lagos and Rivers were rewarded with ministerial nominations, their Akwa Ibom PDP counterpart and the current Senate Minority Leader is being hounded by the EFCC,” Metuh said.

“This is in spite of the common knowledge that Akwa-Ibom under the Senator Akpabio is arguably the least indebted state in Nigeria. He appropriately applied available resources to effectively transform the state. We challenge the APC to show Nigerians any of their governors that matched the feats achieved in Akwa-Ibom under Senator Akpabio, whose only building in Uyo is an uncompleted building with verifiable bank loans.”

Metuh added that no APC member, in spite of the public petitions of corruption and squandering of state funds, had been invited or questioned by the EFCC, since the commencement of APC-led administration.

“We challenge the EFCC, as an anti-corruption agency to show Nigerians any member of the APC it has so far questioned, not to talk of being arrested,’’ he added. Metuh also accused the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SFG), Mr Babachir Lawal of being insensitive to the mood of the nation. This is copiously demonstrated in Saturday’s ostentatious thanksgiving party (with hundreds of millions of naira spent), by Lawal at a time the people of the North East geo-political zone, where he hails from are being ravaged by insurgency.