TheHILL | POLITICS | NOVEMBER 28.
Ahead of the 2023 Presidential Election, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Director General, Voice of Nigeria VON, Mr Osita Okechukwu, has knocked the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for making return plans to the presidency, saying the erstwhile ruling party cannot be trusted to rescue the country given its antecedents which are riddled with a trust deficit.
Commenting on the proposal of the PDP to rescue Nigeria, Okechukwu said going by its antecedents, it is better to allow the APC to continue fixing the country.
“How can Nigerians trust our sister political party, the PDP, given their antecedents riddled with trust deficit? We know that times are hard; methinks it is better to allow APC to fix Nigeria. Where do one start from?” Okechukwu questioned.
The VON DG cited instances of PDP’s wastage, urging them to account for the millions raised and left in some fixed deposit and current accounts before bragging to fix the country.
Okechukwu also recalled how Kassim Afegbua had alerted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC to the monumental corruption in the opposition party.
He also claimed that PDP’s planlessness and squandermania were uncountable, asking; “can we forget the squandermania of $23 billion Greenfield Refineries – one meant for Lagos, one for Kogi and one for Bayelsa? A golden opportunity cost to our economy.
“Recall that on March 19, 2015, the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties CNPP queried Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, then Minister of Finance thus,
“May we under the Freedom of Information Act 2011, request for the full disclosure of transactions concerning the three Greenfield refineries and petrochemical plant contract awarded on 13th May 2010 by President Goodluck Jonathan to Chinese State Construction and Engineering Corporation Limited (CCEEC), at $23 billion meant to be located at Bayelsa, Kogi and Lagos States?”
“Secondly, why are they dead on arrival as six years down the line, neither the three Greenfield refineries nor petrochemical plant is under construction. The three Greenfield refineries one understands, on completion were to add 750,000 barrels per day capacity to Nigeria’s refining infrastructure and create over a million jobs.
“The Greenfield Refineries fiasco happened when our Excess Crude Account had over $40 billion and the China State Construction Corporation even upped their equity to 80 per cent. The unfortunate outcome is that $15 billion is fleeced off our national treasury annually for the importation of refined petroleum products for over a decade”, he added.
On why APC did not embark on building the Greenfield Refinery in the last six years, Okechukwu noted that “from all indications the company was frustrated by the PDP and we were excited by the prospects of the Dangote Refinery”.
