The All Progressives Congress, APC, has berated the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for criticising the government led by President Muhammadu Buhari over the administrative inquiry ordered into the operations of the Nigerian Ports Authority, saying the opposition party, which it described as corruption personified, is unfit to censure the ruling government.

The APC, in a statement signed by it’s National Secretary, Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe, also lampooned the PDP for dragging the spouse of the Transport Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, into what it described as the PDP’s “phantom story of imaginary money looted from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), concocted by one of their own, a known PDP sympathizer,” just to malign her person.

It said the Opposition party, which looted Nigeria dry during her 16 years of piloting the affairs of this country, should be ashamed to point fingers and also allow Buhari’s government to “focus on cleaning the daunting mess they left behind in the Niger Delta, like most facets of our country.”

The ruling party, however, retreated that the probe into the NPA, as ordered by the President “further reinforces Buhari’s zero tolerance for corruption in his administration,” as well as being “a clear testimony of the President’s belief in transparency, good governance and adherence to the rules in public service.”

The statement reads thus:

“We read the nonsensical statement by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against prominent party leader and the Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and the suspended Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman in connection with the routine administrative inquiry approved by President, Muhammadu Buhari into the activities of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

We also note the shameful attempt by the PDP to libelously drag the spouse of Amaechi (who has never held public office and is not a politician) into the realm of politics, and libelously malign her with their fictional tale of looting the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Even for the totally debased PDP, that was a whole new low!

Apparently, the PDP is still living in their alternate reality in which corruption, aided by their family members and cronies was approved statecraft. For the PDP that looted everything in sight during the 16 years it held this country to ransom, it is understandable that it is still unable to understand a routine administrative probe.

While inaugurating the panel on Monday to probe the activities of the NPA, the Transportation minister was abundantly clear that no one has been indicted of anything. And the probe is in line with the routine discharge of the duties and functions of the Ministry of Transportation’s supervisory mandate over the NPA.

The fact that the APC-led government of President Buhari approved the probe of the NPA is a clear testimony of the President’s belief in transparency, good governance and adherence to the rules in public service. It further reinforces President Buhari’s zero tolerance for corruption in his administration.

Compare and contrast this with the years of PDP and all anyone would find are 16 years of plundering of our collective wealth, the desecration of our public institutions and their values. No public institution was spared.

Shamelessly, the PDP was quick to mention the spouse of Amaechi, over a phantom story of imaginary money looted from the NDDC, concocted by one of their own, a known PDP sympathizer.

It is an irony that the PDP whose public officers’ family members and cronies collectively looted our country with many charged to court for financial crimes and money laundering offences, would based on fiction, slander the spouse of an APC public official. While we do not intend to go low as the PDP, we want to remind them that Nigerians still remember vividly the billions of Naira, millions of dollars of stolen state funds that were either recovered or confiscated from immediate-past PDP public officials, their family members and cronies.

Yes, Nigerians are appalled, but not by the concocted story of looting against Amaechi’s spouse in NDDC but by the known fact that after many years of being in control of the NDDC, several PDP government officials, their family members and cronies salted away the enormous funds that accrued to the NDDC that was meant for the development of the Niger Delta region. We urge the PDP to allow us focus on cleaning the daunting mess they left behind in the Niger Delta, like most facets of our country.

To be clear, ‘corruption personified,’ which the PDP represents, is in no position to pontificate or even point fingers at the APC on the ongoing fight against corruption.”