PDP accuse Defence minister of “diverting funds meant for the military”
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Monday accused the Minister of Defence, Mansur Muhammad Dan-Ali, of “diverting funds meant for the military equipment and welfare of soldiers fighting insurgency in the northeast.”
PDP claimed that Dan-Ali was diverting the funds “to produce partisan materials for the All Progressives Congress (APC) re-election campaign.”
In a statement signed by its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, the opposition party claimed the Defence Minister was diverting part of the military funds to produce APC’s campaign materials including an “electronic momento book, on which he ascribed credit to himself and the APC, while our soldiers suffer neglect in the war front.”
The party said the “placing of APC logo alongside that of the Ministry of Defence on the momento confirms our position that the Buhari Presidency has compromised our defence architecture for Mr. President’s re-election project.”
The statement reads, “Our party considers it insensitive and a gross impunity for the Minister of Defence to be engaging in patronising soverniers for President Buhari at a time when our soldiers are being killed in their numbers.
“It is also instructive to note that President Muhammadu Buhari, as Mr. Integrity, has not reprimanded the minister, ostensibly, given that the diversion of public funds for his re-election campaign is now a policy of the APC and the Buhari Presidency.
“Nigerians can now see how the Buhari Presidency and the APC have turned the Ministry of Defence into their Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) to fund their re-election, at the detriment of our citizens who are being daily attacked by insurgents and marauders in various parts of our country.
“There is a fixation in the Buhari Presidency on winning the 2019 elections at all cost even at the expense of the lives of Nigerians.
“With these revelations, the APC has proven to be a soulless mob, which has no interest in the good of our nation, but desperate to hang onto power by all means.
“We therefore call for an open investigation into the handling of military funds to unravel those benefitting from the racket especially given allegation that some persons close to the President are being used as conduits to fritter public funds for President Buhari’s re-election and their wasteful lifestyles.”
