The national leadership of Peoples Democratic Party has alleged that an unnamed leader of the All Progressives Congress got a lucrative contract of N84 billion from the recently suspended Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Malam Sanusi Lamido.
The ruling party claimed this accounted for the loud outcry from the opposition party when President Goodluck Jonathan wielded the big stick against the outspoken CBN governor.
Apart from this, the party also alleged that another leader of the APC got a N5 billion consultancy contract while Sanusi was in office.
The suspected official is former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, who has since denied the allegation, affirming that his company, a Quantity Surveying firm, which he claimed he has not been actively involved in, emerged the preferred choice in a competitive process and not because of his closeness to Sanusi. He also dispelled the notion that the contract sum was N5 billion even though he did not state the exact figure.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, made the allegation at a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday.
Metuh was commenting on the launch of the APC manifesto, which he said lacked “character” and was a product of “janjaweed ideology”.
Metuh added that the manifesto was “a roadmap to anarchy, which is typical of all anti-democratic coalitions”.
The ruling party said the manifesto lacked character, depth and completely addressed no issue, adding that it gave no clue as to its preparedness to tackle terrorism.
“It was a tacit acknowledgment that the APC may be benefiting from the mayhem and knows more than meets the eyes about the spate of terror attacks in the country.
“When last year in its first official outing, the leaders of the APC said terrorism in Nigeria would disappear within 100days of APC leadership, Nigerians did ask if they knew the characters in crime and their sponsors, APC gave silence as an answer while Nigerians kept wondering.
“Today, the party has released its manifesto with loud silence on the matter so that Nigerians would not raise further questions on the face behind the terrorism mask”.
The ruling party further tore the APC’s manifesto to shreds, saying the opposition party has no credible recipe for job creation nor has it shown the strength of character to fight corruption more than the PDP does at the moment.
“The PDP created anti-corruption agencies- the ICPC, the EFCC and established the Freedom of Information Act to further give teeth to the war on graft.
“The PDP-led federal government has also shown no preferences in its battle on corruption as senior party leaders as well as relations have at one time or another been made to face the law on charges of corruption.
“The spirited defence for the suspended Central Bank Governor mounted by the APC was because the leaders of the party benefited immensely from the regime of sleaze that took place under Sanusi.
“A fraudulent N84 billion contract was awarded to a leader of the party while another N5billion was paid to another stalwart of the party as consultancy fee”, the party added.
The ruling party said nothing showcases the anti-democratic ambience of the APC than its inability to conduct a properly-constituted congresses and convention to elect its substantive officers almost a year after formation.
“The strange bed fellows have merged but the structures are refusing to integrate, hence, crisis and disagreements in its ranks”.
The PDP further described as tissue of lies, the claim by the APC that it was the first party to lunch a code of conduct for its members.
