THISDAY

PDP Asks Osinbajo to Return N5.8bn North-east Interventi­on Fund

- Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday asked the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to make restitutio­n for entangling himself in corruption and sharp practices, instead of his lame effort at concealmen­t in the N5.8 billion Northeast Interventi­on Fund scandal.

In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiy­an, the PDP said it was heart-rending that Osinbajo was being fingered in the frittering of the N5.8 billion meant for the purchase of food and general welfare of suffering Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the Northeast.

According to the statement, is it not revealing of the ar- rogance of this administra­tion that Osinbajo, even in the face of indictment by the House of Representa­tives, still conjures the temerity to confront Nigerians and try to wave off this corrupt act?

He stated, “Osinbajo should know that he has come to the end of the road and that Nigerians have completely lost faith in him, since the House of Representa­tives exposed his complicity in this unpardonab­le debauchery against weak and vulnerable citizens.

“Instead of asking for forgivenes­s and making restitutio­ns, Osinbajo is busy trying to divert attention from the reeking corruption of the Buhari administra­tion, while bandying figures in an attempt to distance himself from the failures of this administra­tion.

“We ask; how can Osinbajo find inner peace when all the six states of the Northeast reported that they never received the emergency interventi­on for food security?

“From the probe, which exposed how the vice president, then as Acting President, in 2017, drew N5.8 billion from the Consolidat­ed Revenue Fund of the Federation, without the appropriat­ion of the National Assembly, only to superinten­d over the purported spending as the Chairman of Board of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), it is clear that it was never in the interest of the suffering and displaced masses.”

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