Yesterday, the Peoples Democratic Party of Nigeria called on
the Federal Government to explain the whereabouts of an allegedly missing $1bn
from the Excess Crude Account security fund. (Read HERE)
The Presidency in its response on Sunday night declared that
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is currently under a socio-emotional
distress.
The Senior Special Assistant on Media and publicity, Garba
Shehu, described the allegation as ‘rubbish’ adding that “the PDP is under a
socio-emotional distress. T
Giving account of how the money withdrawn from the excess
crude account was spent, he said;
“Here is what happened to that USD 1,000 million. It’s on
record that the Buhari administration paid about USD 490 million for a dozen
Super Tucano fighter aircraft in a direct, government-to-government (no
Contractors or Commission Agents) transaction with government of the United
State. Various other military procurements have been made. Balance of
expenditure stands at about USD 880 million or so.”
He said that barring considerations of national security,
the details of the stage of implementation, the procurements made and the
suppliers could be obtained on Monday, a workday.
Differentiating Buhari’s administration from the immediate
past PDP administration, he said that the now opposition party spent defence
procurement funds on 2015 election campaigns.
He said “the PDP spent Defence procurement funds on their
failed 2015 political campaigns as proven in court. That is not to say every
succeeding government, more so one led by a Buhari will do the same”.
