THE Peoples Democratic Party has reacted to the news of accrual of N774 million subsidy daily on petrol which was announced at the weekend by the Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
For the party, it is a ploy to cover up mounting fraud in the presidency.
PDP saidin a statement by its National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in Abuja, on Monday, that it is shocked by alleged moves by the Federal Government to cover huge fraud in the Presidency by declaring that it spends N24 billion monthly (N774million per day) to subsidise fuel in the country.
According to the party, the figures and the purported proliferation of fuel stations, used as an alibi for the sudden jump in subsidy pay-out, are fictitious and cleverly fabricated to retire the alleged exposed stealing of trillions of naira by Presidency cabal and APC interests in secret oil deals.
Ologbondiyan said it was duplicitous for the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation to claim a sudden surge in fuel purchase expenses at the same time that the nation faced the harshest fuel shortage across the country with Nigerians paying exorbitantly for the product.
He said, “The APC-led Presidency is drawing its deceptive proclivity and concealment of fraud too far, and to think that such is hatched in a sector that is under the direct supervision of President Muhammadu Buhari as minister of petroleum affairs is most disheartening.
“This is the same Presidency that claimed to have abolished fuel subsidy payments and even accused the immediate past administration of alleged corruption in its subsidy management.
“It is therefore strange that the same government can pull out unimaginable figures and claim it is the cost of subsidy enjoyed by Nigerians.
“How come that with such humongous sums, Nigerians are still paying as high as N250 to N300 per litre on fuel in various parts of the country?”
