Again, presidency replies PDP over apology to Nigeria, asks party to cough out loot
The Nigerian presidency has again replied the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus, over his apology on behalf of his party to Nigerians for the mistakes made while it was in power for up to 16 years.
But in replying Secondus, the presidency advised Nigerians to be cautious of what it called the less-than-honest apology offered by Secondus.
The presidency also declared support for the point made by the information minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that there are heavy moral duties that go with apologies if the culprits want to be taken seriously.
“The PDP is desperate to recapture power because it no longer has unhindered access to national resources for private uses and its apology should be seen in this context.
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“The PDP has not even acknowledged the fact that it plundered the national economy, and for a party that dismissed the anti-corruption war as a political witch hunt, it is impossible to believe that its public apology comes from the bottom of the heart.
“Even desperate thieves apologize because they are caught and not because they are incapable of repeating the crime if they had another opportunity.
“We believe that the PDP should not only apologize for the imposition of candidates, and the culture of impunity, but must also come clean and acknowledge that they participated in large scale corruption and massive diversions of public funds to private pockets while poverty was ravaging the ordinary Nigerians.
“We challenge individual PDP leaders to publicly and voluntarily tell Nigerians how much they stole and then agree to cough up their illegal acquisitions of wealth if they want their apology to be taken seriously.
“Apology borne by desperation to recapture power without a desire to admit how much they stole and the reluctance to return the loot is morally hollow. This goes beyond rebranding. Nigerians are not interested in brands. They want their money back,” a statement by presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, said on Friday, March 30.
According to the presidency, for such apology by Secondus to gain acceptance, the offenders must first of all show remorse; then return that which was unlawfully taken or restore the damage caused the nation; and commit to never doing the wrong they did again.
“The PDP has done none of these for them to be taken seriously by anyone.
“Instead of addressing this cogent issue raised by the minister, the PDP veered off to accuse this administration of borrowing money but failed, in that regard to admit that they borrowed to steal while Buhari administration is borrowing to set up long-delayed infrastructure.
“They accused the president of unevenness, of inflaming ethnic and religious tensions, when it is on record that they gave this country its divisive president who chose the hallowed premises of places of worship to read important national statements.
“President Buhari never fails in his duty as the chief security oficer of the nation. He acts fast whenever and wherever there are incidents by ordering law-enforcement agencies to do their job and fact-finding mission to give him actionable reports.
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“PDP’s uncaring attitude to these matters, including the kidnapping of 270 girls from Chibok is the hallmark of the long years of misrule.
“Another issue of moral and political significance is about the recent disclosure by US investigators that the PDP government engaged in massive data theft that included the hacking of candidate Muhammadu Buhari’s personal data before the last general elections.
“PDP’s continued silence on this reprehensible heist only goes to confirm their remorselessness even as more and more facts are emerging that the same unfair method was the modus operandi that they used to capture political power in the 2017 elections,” the statement added.
Legit.ng earlier reported that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) asked the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to look inwards if they are searching for looters of the nation’s treasury.
The party’s national publicity secretary Kola Ologbodiyan criticised Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s speech at colloquium organised to mark the 66th birthday of Bola Tinubu, the national leader of the APC in Lagos on Thursday, March 29.
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Source: Legit.ng
