Nigerian Ruling, Opposition Parties Trade Words Over $2bn, $460m China Loan, CCTV Project

As part of corruption’allegations rocking the Nigerian Political space, the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) have continued to trade words.
The PDP on Monday berated the APC over allegation of failed $460 million Abuja Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) Project and $2 billion China Loan. 
APC reacted to the statement issued by the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, PDP chieftain, on the standard sovereign guarantee and sovereign immunity clause embedded in Nigeria’s loan agreements with China to fund the ongoing national railway projects, describing it as unresearched, unintelligent and pedestrian.

The Nigerian ruling party, in a statement by its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena said that Atiku and PDP could redirect their energies to explaining to Nigerians the status of the failed $460 million Abuja CCTV awarded in August 2010 by the immediate-past PDP administration. 
The APC also told the PDP to explain the over $2 billion China loan the PDP administration took between 2010 and 2013 alone; $16billion spent on power with no electricity; fuel subsidy rackets; counter-insurgency funds that were diverted and shared to political cronies among other shocking heists.

Reacting to APC allegations, the PDP spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan said that rather than engaging in baseless counter allegations, Nigerians expect the APC and its government to first respond to revelations that they have mortgaged the sovereignty of the nation for their selfish benefits. 
“They must also respond to the demand by Nigerians to prosecute the officials already indicted by President Buhari.

“Until they do so, the APC and its government should hide their faces in shame and await the judgment of Nigerians in 2023,” the party said.
The party further said: “Five years in the saddle, we are where we are. The APC that came with the mantra of fighting corruption has since become the most corrupt party in the history of Nigeria.

“Where is the N800 billion they claimed to have recovered? Nigerians know that the so-called recovered monies have since been re-looted by those shouting war against corruption. This government has failed by all standards and they know it.
“The PDP advises the federal government to immediately begin the investigation of its officials and highly-placed members of the APC alleged to have soiled their hands, with a view to bringing them to book.

“Until they do this, the APC and the government it formed at the centre should keep their peace because Nigerians are now wiser than their needless propaganda.”
The PDP said the attempt by the APC to trivialize the mortgaging of the nation by raising frivolous allegations against the PDP, validates APC’s complicity in the pawning of the country to foreign interests.
The party holds that APC’s jaundiced reaction to the attempt to send future generation of Nigerians to China on slavery shows that the APC is anti-people and has no remorse for the wrongdoing of its leaders and government. 

“Our party takes exception to the purported challenge by the APC and we counsel the APC to first give account of the N800 billion it claimed to have recovered, as Nigerians have regrettably come to discover that the APC thrives on fraud and corruption.
“Perhaps the APC leaders, in their deceptive posturing, failed to note that President Muhammadu Buhari had already told the world that his officials swim in ocean of corruption.

“The PDP therefore awaits the further reaction of President Buhari to our demand that he stops providing official cover for these corrupt members of his party and government,” the party said.