PDP accuses Buhari, APC of fraudulent depletion of ECA

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the revelation of furtive depletion and siphoning of $1.68 billion from the Excess Crude Account (ECA), further showed that President Muhammadu Buhari presides over a corrupt government that is bent on draining the treasury and foisting more suffering on the people.

The party accused President Buhari of superintending over the surreptitious withdrawals from the ECA, without recourse to the statutory appropriation of the National Assembly, saying funds are being frittered from the account to private purses of the cabal at the Presidency and corrupt All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders.

A statement on Thursday by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, described the excuses being peddled by the Buhari administration on the depletion as hazy, muddle-up and cannot find basis under the due process of statutory legislative approvals.

The main opposition party wondered why the President is presiding over such impunity, if he is not drawing personal benefits from the obvious racket for which ECA has been turned into APC’s Automated Teller Machine (ATM).

The statement said, “Apparently realizing that they have been rejected by Nigerians ahead of the 2019 general elections, the APC and the Buhari Presidency now want to drain our treasury and as usual, blame it on past administration.

“Nigerians can recall that the PDP, which established the ECA as a buffer account to cushion the effect of any economic down turn, left $2.07 billion in the account only for the Buhari administration to drain it down to $631 million.

“The PDP condemns this manifest impunity by the Buhari Presidency and demands that no more withdrawals must be made from the account by this corrupt and inept administration.

“Finally, our party urges Nigerians to unite in condemnation of the depletion of our ECA by the Buhari administration, which has less than five months to leave the governance of our country for good”.