Politics: PDP alleges N33bn NEMA Fraud

The Vice President Yemi Osinbajo have been charged by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday to come clean on the N5.8 billion National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) scandal for which he was reportedly fingered by an investigative committee of the House of Representatives.

Muhammadu Buhari presidency were asked to immediately prosecute the sacked Director General of NEMA, Mustapha Yunusa Maihaja, who was also indicted by the House of Representatives over alleged embezzlement of N33 billion in the agency.

According to PDP in a statement released by its National Publicity Director, Kola Ologbondiyan, "The party is standing with Nigerians in opposing this unforgivable pat in the wrist of allowing Maihaja to leave office without investigation and prosecution to recover the allegedly embezzled money.

“Our party believes that the failure to prosecute the indicted former NEMA director general is a ploy to shield top officials in the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration, who are alleged to be involved in the series of scam in NEMA, while the masses, for whom the fund was meant to serve, continue to suffer neglect and untold hardships.”

The PDP insisted that Maihaja's sacking could not be used as an excuse to foreclose an investigation into NEMA's major fraud under the watch of Osinbajo as chairman of the agency's Governing Board.

The party described the sleaze in NEMA as an indelible smear on the Buhari presidency, and charged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to immediately take in Maihaja for questioning, and if found wanting, prosecute him.

It noted that the vice president had failed to provide a cogent response to the House of Representatives' report on N33bn NEMA fraud, in addition to claims that the N5.8bn had been withdrawn from the national coffers while serving as president, without parliamentary approval and recourse to existing due process, procurement and contract laws.

The PDP recalled that the House of Representatives had exposed that while the fund was claimed to have been expended for procurement of grains under the emergency intervention on food security in the North-east region, none of the six states of the region received any grain from the so-called emergency intervention by NEMA.

The House had also exposed that there was no evidence that the World Food Programme (WFP) received the 5,000 metric tons of rice, which NEMA claimed to have bought and donated to WFP for distribution to victims of insurgency in the region.

According to the PDP, “Indeed, the failure of the Buhari presidency to prosecute Maihaja despite his indictment by the House had raised serious issues of alleged complicity in high places, for which Nigerians expect Osinbajo, as the chairman of the Governing Board of the agency, should come clean.

“It is even more saddening that the looted fund is part of the money set aside for emergency response such as provision of palliatives and other essentials for the poor masses to mitigate the hardships that would be occasioned by emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The PDP also charged the EFCC to use the House of Representatives report as a working document to immediately invite Maihaja to query on the looted funds as well as to further expose top government officials allegedly involved in the massive NEMA scam.