The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has reacted to the revelation by the wife of the president, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, of alleged fraud in the N500 billion Social Investment Programme (SIP) saying the party was being vindicated.
It would be recalled the Mrs. Buhari had, at the weekend, said the N500 billion SIP of her husband’s administration failed woefully, particularly in the north.
Mrs. Buhari also criticised the $16 million counterpart fund said to have been used so far on procurement of mosquito nets.
“I have heard about mosquito nets; Nigeria paid its counterpart fund, $16m. I asked them to give my own share of the net to send it to my village people. I didn’t get it.
“They have spent $16 million in buying mosquito nets, I did not get it, may be some people have got it. But I feel that, that’s my personal opinion, $16m is enough to fumigate mosquitoes in Nigeria. That’s my opinion,” she said.
Reacting to the development, the PDP said in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan that the revelation by the president’s was an indication that the party was not crying wolf by insisting that Buhari should account for the trillions of naira stolen under his watch in the last four years.
He said it was more disheartening that the said funds were meant for the welfare of the poor, whom the president had always claimed to represent in government.
“Unfortunately, these poor Nigerians have been waiting endlessly for the failed social investments promised by President Buhari only to have their hopes dashed as revelations by Mrs. Buhari, which shown that the money provided for the programme had been stolen.
“It is indeed appalling that the Buhari’s administration would be sitting on such colossal corruption and continues to thrive in evil concealment while diverting public attention from their rot by hounding innocent opposition figures on trump-up corruption charges.
“Nigerians can now see how the same administration presided over by Mr. Integrity has been using the names of innocent poor Nigerians to loot our national treasury and fritter away billions of naira to finance their wasteful lifestyle while Nigerians wallow in abject poverty,” said Ologbondiyan.
However, the manager of SIP, Mrs. Maryam Uwais said contrary to Mrs. Buhari’s claim, 250,000 people benefited from the programme in Adamawa State.
She said 11,000 graduates were recruited and working on the scheme in the state, while the school feeding programme also kicked off in the state in October 2018 in 12 local government areas.
