The anti-corruption crusade of
President Muhammadu Buhari received a major boost Wednesday, as Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, members of the House of Representatives declared support
for the anti-graft war, urging the President to go all out and recover the
country’s stolen money.
The caucus of the party at the
House controls about 139 lawmakers out of the 360-member legislature.
However, the declaration of
support came with the condition that he would adopt a “holistic” approach in
fighting corruption.
According to the caucus, no
politician, serving or former public office holder should be spared by the
President, not minding whether the person was a PDP member or a member of the
majority All Progressives Congress.
This was stated when the PDP
caucus’ media team, spoke with journalists at the National Assembly in Abuja,
noting that the negative impact of corruption was felt by all Nigerians,
irrespective of their political affiliation.
Continuing, the caucus added
that, in fighting corrupt persons, there should be no protection for anybody,
no matter the political party they belonged.
Leader of the media team, Mr.
Rima Shawulu, observed for example, that there were many politicians who were
members of the PDP before they defected to the APC.
According to him, in carrying out
his anti-corruption crusade, the President should not create the impression
that such persons no longer had cases to answer by virtue of joining the APC,
adding that there were key members of the APC itself with alleged corruption
cases, which the President could not afford to ignore.
Shawulu said: “We support the
agenda of Mr. President and the Federal Government to fight corruption and we
will back him to recover funds on proven cases.
“Our position as a political
party is that the President does not have the powers by himself to draw a line
that some crimes should be investigated while others are not to be touched.
“Corruption should be fought
holistically; whether the offenders are in the PDP or in the APC, there should
be no waivers on corruption investigations.”
According to Shawulu, a wrong
impression had been created that the PDP and its lawmakers were against
Buhari’s anti-corruption stance, recalling that the first resolution passed by
the current 8th House on the crude “SWAP” contracts awarded by the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation was sponsored by a member of the PDP.
“It was also a PDP member who
moved the motion that the handover notes of former President Goodluck Jonathan
should be published for the purpose of accountability.
“Another motion on the
non-implementation of the 2015 budget was sponsored by a PDP member; all along
we have been out for accountability,” he said.
Credit: Daily Post
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