File photo of failed CCTV project in AbujaThe ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to account for several projects running into billions of dollars and naira which it took foreign loans to execute but never saw the light on the day.
In a statement today, August 3, the APC deputy national publicity secretary, Yekini Nabena asked PDP to explain the over $2 billion China loan its administration took between 2010 and 2013 alone; $16 billion spent on power with no electricity; fuel subsidy rackets; counter-insurgency funds that were diverted and shared to political cronies among other shocking heists.
Nabena recalled that the failed CCTV installation project was initiated by late President Umaru Yar’Adua and awarded in August 2010 by former President, Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to help security agencies in the Federal Capital Territory check the growing insecurity.
“Since the agreement became signed, Nigeria has been servicing this loan to China while Nigerians are yet to attest to the visibility of CCTV project and unable to explain the status of the video surveillance project. The matter is subject to a legislative probe.”
The APC spokesman, who was reacting to the Media Office of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar on the standard sovereign guarantee and sovereign immunity clause embedded in Nigeria’s loan agreements with China to fund the ongoing national railway projects, described such position as unresearched, unintelligent and pedestrian.
“As the Minister for Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has explained, the guarantee/clause in the loan deal is standard, irrespective of the the country granting the loan.
“Perhaps, Atiku and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could redirect their energies to explaining to Nigerians the status of the failed $ 460 million Abuja Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) awarded in August 2010 by the immediate past PDP administration.”
Nabena insisted that the PDP remains a corrupted and damaged product, adding that Nigerians must continue to reject the party at all levels of government.
“In the area of fiscal discipline, prudence, curbing leakages, are we currently getting it right? It is an emphatic yes! “Every kobo expended on infrastructure counts. Verifiable evidence abound in the fast expanding national railway projects, airport remodelling among other critical infrastructure projects being undertaken by the President Muhammadu Buhari government.
“The days of phoney contracts as institutionalised by successive PDP administrations are fast fading.”
