PDP attacks Buhari as EFCC freezes Benue, Akwa Ibom accounts

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has charged President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately “order the unfreezing of the official accounts of Akwa-Ibom and Benue states illegally blocked” by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), as such is a “direct attack on innocent Nigerians in those states.”


It was reported earlier on Wednesday that the state government’s account has been frozen by the anti-graft agency.
But, the Benue State Governor, Samuel Orton described EFCC’s action as political “witch-hunt.”

Reacting, PDP described the freezing as “illegal, unconstitutional, overtly wicked and cannot be justified under any guise within the clear dictates and contemplation of our laws and practice as a nation.”
The opposition party rejected the action of the Federal Government and counselled the “Buhari Presidency not to hide under the EFCC to unleash punishment and hardship on the people in states perceived to be averse to his 2019 re-election bid.”
In a statement by its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP said, “illegally blocking the flow of funds to these states, the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government has ostensibly commenced a reprehensible design of using economic deprivation as a political tool to arm-twist governors and states to support President Buhari’s re-election in 2019.
“The APC has been seeking ways to subjugate Nigerians, for which it has now resorted to subjecting millions of compatriots already impoverished by the misrule of the Buhari administration, to face more hardship by seizing funds legally belonging to them.
“Nigerians are all aware that no section of our constitution or any law in Nigeria for that matter confers any agency of the Federal Government
with powers to interfere or put any restrictions on funds belonging or accruable to states as federating units of our nation.
“Apart from its State Assembly, no other government body or institution has the powers of appropriation or restrictions on any funds belonging to the state.
“The PDP therefore urges all Nigerians to stand up and resist this dangerous trend introduced by the desperate APC to subjugate Nigerians, for which Akwa-Ibom and Benue states are now being used to test the will of the people in this direction.”


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