The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has alleged that the missing 4,501 trucks of petroleum products, disclosed by Managing Director, Nigeria National Petroleum Cooperation, NNPC, Dr. Mikanti Baru, was geared towards financing the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
The party, however, called on security agencies to probe the missing trucks.
In a statement by its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Prince Diran Odeyemi, the party noted that if trucks of petroleum products could suddenly develop wings and could not be traced to the ministry that is directly being supervised by President Buhari, the signs are rather obvious that the plundering of the nation’s commonwealth in ministries, departments and parastatals are at unimaginable rate.
The party expressed shock over what it called “additional means of stealing to finance APC and President Buhari’s re-election next year in addition to the proposed N1billion funding to fight Boko Haram which the administration claimed has been technically defeated.”
The NNPC boss, Dr. Baru had recently disclosed that trucks laden with petrol products could not be traced when he appeared before Senate Committee probing the scarcity of the product last week.
The statement reads: “The PDP is demanding investigation into Baru’s statement that such an embarrassingly huge number of truckload of petrol, 4,501 in total, running into several million of litres of a commodity which incidentally Nigerians suffer and still suffer its scarcity could disappear without the government that lay claim to fighting corruption caring a hoot.
“The PDP is asking, where were the relevant security agencies and bodies saddled with the issues of petroleum products when such a huge number of trucks vanished into thin air? Is it not looking like the ruling party is scooping for money from every available and illegal means to procure the 2019 general elections?
“Security agencies, should not limit its activities to finding money dumped in the open by unknown persons or the selective fight against the opposition, the agency should also widen its scope to establish the veracity of Baru’s claim that such numbers of tankers truly disappeared in a ministry supervised by President Buhari himself who doubles as the Minister of Petroleum.”
“The disclosure is a serious indictment on the Presidency. From all indications, stealing and pilfering under this administration is becoming unbearable for Nigerians, we can imagine what difference the cost of 4,501 trucks of petrol would have done if injected into the Nigeria economy. It is our hope that this incident will not be swept under the carpet”, the party stated.