Obono-Obla, Oyo-Ita: Buhari’s Supporters, PDP Bicker Over Anti-Graft War

By Editor

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and supporters of President Muhammadu Buhari were on Friday engaged in a back and forth over the investigations of Mr. Okoi Obono-Obla and the Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita.

While Buhari’s supporters under the aegis of the Buhari Media Organisation saw the investigations as indicative of President Buhari’s determination to fight graft everywhere, the PDP saw it as a window dressing saying that Obono-Obla may have offended persons close to the president with his probe of the Petroleum Equalisation Fund.

The PDP also dared the president to open up a probe of his own certificate in the way he has ordered a probe of the forgery allegation raised against Obono-Obla.

The BMO had in a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy, BMO recalled that the PDP had persistently accused the President Muhammadu Buhari administration of shielding members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from prosecution over corruption-related matters,

“We make bold to say that with the latest drastic action against a founding member of the ruling party and a top government official, Chief Obono-Obla, the Buhari administration has shown that it has no sacred cows in the fight against corruption, and its resolve to eradicate the scourge remains strong and unshakeable.
 “We believe that this singular action, and the unfolding probe of the current Head of Service, Mrs Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita will lay to rest all doubts about the unfounded claims by the opposition that the Buhari administration was shielding its officials from prosecution.  We also believe that the Federal Government’s decision to suspend him is in order as investigations will unravel any areas of misconduct on the part of Chief Obla”.

However, the PDP in a statement signed by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, observed that “the shocking revelations of multi-dimensional sleazes, bribery, stealing and extortion in President Buhari’s Special Investigation Panel for Recovery of Public Property as well as in the office of the Head of Service of the Federation are just a tip of the iceberg of the earthshaking corruption deeply entrenched in the Buhari Presidency.”

The statement urged Nigerians not to forget “how the indicted Chairman of the Special Investigation Panel, Okoi Obono-Obla and the Head of Service, Winifred Oyo-Ita, enjoyed the protection of the cabal in the Buhari Presidency in its brazen burglary of our common patrimony.”

The party further added: “Nigerians can also recall how the PDP had severally raised the issue of humongous fraud going on in the Special Investigation Panel under Obono-Obla as well as the Chairman’s certificate forgery allegation, and how President Buhari condoned him and refused to take immediate action. 

 “Our party now expects President Buhari to allow an investigation into the revelation by the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, that the N500bn Social Investment Programme and the N16bn Mosquito Net Project of his administration were diverted to private purses. This is in addition to persons close to him, who as former ministers and former governors are facing corruption charges in various panels and courts, including a former minister indicted in the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, N2.5 billion fraud case.

“Furthermore, the PDP ask President Buhari Presidency to speak out on the allegations in public space that Obono-Obla’s investigation activities at the Petroleum Equalization Fund, PEF, which the Presidency cabal is desperate to conceal, is what he is being punished for.

“Moreover, the PDP holds that now that President Buhari appears resolved to take the right step to investigate Obono-Obla’s certificate forgery scandal, it has also become incumbent on him to purge his conscience by owning up on his own certificate saga.”

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