Nigeria’s ruling party seeks probe of Obasanjo over $16bn power sector expenses

Former Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole has urged President Buhari to probe ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo on an account of how $16 billion was expended on power sector during his administration.

Adams Oshiomole said this while speaking at the All Progressives Congress (APC) secretariat in Abuja as the new national party chairman, although he did not mention ex-President Obasanjo by name.

Oshiomhole also faulted the alarm raised by the former President that there were plans to kill him. Read what he said below;

The APC chairman said, “As I was reflecting, I watched our President recently asking questions rhetorically, ‘you have spent $16bn on power under the PDP, to lay emphasis, he repeated, where is the power?’.

“Nigerians in their various homes, those who had power that day or generator, said, Mr. President, we don’t have. So, $16bn spent, the more dollars they spent, the more darkness the people suffered.

“Now the questions I had in my mind were: maybe because the President has not yet proceeded to now ask the follow-up questions that ‘since we don’t find the power, then, you must bring the $16bn that you spent.’ If he doesn’t do that, then the accusations of limited anti-corruption may begin to gain some currency.

“Our President needs to do the needful. After all, it is already on record what other presidents didn’t do, with regards to the issue of MKO Abiola, and the criminal manner by which the election was nullified, and people pretended that that was never an issue, the President showed courage. That same courage should not fail him so that he can proceed to recover the $16bn and return it to the treasury from the man who superintended over the spending of that money.

“When he does that, people will say, yes, there is a difference because there are Nigerians who are saying so.

“That propelled Prof. Wole Soyinka to say that, if people had immunity as sitting presidents when the immunity expires, should they transit from immunity to impunity? I think impunity is deadlier than immunity.

“What we need to do as a party is to provide the support that our President needs and for the Nigerian people to provide those supports and then they want to distract our attention when they are in trouble and say, ‘Eh! they want to kill me.’”

Meanwhile, Oshiomhole, promised to ensure the establishment of an institute aimed at disseminating the progressive ideals of APC party members across the country, saying he would create a platform whereby chieftains of the party would be made to render accounts of their stewardship.