The APC Presidential Campaign Council has come out hard on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), alleging that the opposition party was notorious for ‘sharing the money’ into private pockets at the expense of the country’s national growth. 

“The PDP in its 16 years in power earned the notoriety of always ‘sharing the money’. Money was always shared not for the public good, which was why the party left our infrastructure derelict and our armed forces ill-equipped to face new security challenges,” campaign spokesman Bayo Onanuga wrote on Friday. 

Mr Onanuga’s attack on the PDP is coming on the heels of criticism that has greeted the controversial sums paid into the bank accounts of some members of the opposition party’s National Working Committee (NWC). 

On Thursday, members of the PDP’s NWC including Taofeek Arapaja, Deputy National Chairman (South); Dan Osi Orbih, National Vice Chairman (South-South); Stella Effah-Atoe, National Women Leader; and Olasoji Adagunodo, National Vice Chairman, (South-West), had announced the refund of the said amounts sent to their bank accounts by the party’s leadership. 

Of the controversial sum, Mr Arapaja got N36 million transferred into his bank account, while the three others got N28.8 million each. 

The four NWCs members in their different statements issued to the public claimed that the party paid the said N122.4 million into their accounts ‘without stating the purpose’, raising suspicion that they were allegedly being ‘bribed’ by the embattled PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, to curry favour following pressure on him to resign his position.

Mr Ayu had been facing stiff opposition within the PDP, especially from Rivers governor, Nyesom Wike, who had been demanding the national chairman’s resignation, after the latter’s fall out from the presidential primary, which produced Atiku Abubakar as the party’s flag bearer. 

Taking a further swipe at the PDP on Friday, Mr Onanuga said the opposition party has returned to its ‘old habits’ of embezzling public funds and diverting it into private pockets. 

He, however, asked Nigerians to be watchful by refusing the opposition PDP back to power to avoid the country plundering further into economic crisis. 

“Now the party known as ‘share the money’ has started again. The revelation about the reenactment of the party’s old habits is a timely warning to Nigerians not to ever again entrust our country in the hands of those plunderers and their veteran flag bearer, Atiku Abubakar.”

“Public money was always shared into their pockets, even at the expense of national security as the APC government of President Muhammadu Buhari found in 2015–paper trails of public money going into private pockets,” Mr Onanuga added.

During the PDP years in power, the country suffered heavily from corruption in government circles, especially among political office holders as public funds were diverted into private accounts. 

President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC came on board with the mantra of ‘change’ to fight the menace, but his own government had become worse with higher level corruption.