The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it has uncovered a plot by presidency and top APC officials to steal N13.5 billion through the School Feeding Programme while schools remained closed.
The party made this known in a Thursday statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan.
PDP described as a “huge scam” the Federal Government’s decision to continue the programme now that schools are closed due to COVID-19.
The party said it was “sacrilegious, wicked and completely unpardonable” that the senior administration officials planned to siphon N679 million daily while using the innocent school children as cover.
“While it is clear that the APC-led administration’s school feeding programme had always been a scam, the claims to feed school children even when schools are closed is a colossal racketeering taken too far.
“This goes to further expose that stealing and corruption are deeply engrained in the DNA of the APC and its administration.
“While the PDP has nothing against any transparent effort to provide succour to Nigerians, particularly our children, at this critical time, our party rejects the on-going fraud in which school children, who are in their respective homes, bearing the brunt of the failures of the APC administration, are being used as metaphors to divert public funds to a few corrupt individuals in the Buhari presidency.
“Nigerians are witnesses to how the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Umar Farouq, stammers, makes conflicting pronouncements, and points to Mr. President’s speech as cover each time Nigerians demand details of her humongous spending,” the statement read in part.
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PDP said the minister has failed to provide details of how she intends to reach the 9.7 million school children, who are now in their homes in different locations since the closure of schools, even as officials continue to muddle up required documentations in a bid to cover their tracks.
It said Nigerians were invited to note how the minister contradicted herself in claiming that the food would be shared door-to-door and in the same breath averred that vouchers would be allocated at specific collection times to “avoid overcrowding”.
“Such contradiction only betrays an unwholesome tendency, as Nigerians wonder how there would be overcrowding on door-to-door distribution of food to children who are claimed to have been individually designated in various locations.
“Our party notes that critical stakeholders in the education sector, including the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) and Concerned Parents and Educators (CPE) had also raised queries over this fraudulent scheme, which is already going the way of the N500 billion Social Investment Programme of the Buhari administration which the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, had earlier exposed as a huge scam.
“The PDP is worried that with the constant reference to President Buhari’s speech, it is clear that unscrupulous officials are cashing in on the situation to fleece the nation.
“If these officials indeed mean well for the school children, they should hand over the funds to the ministry of education in the respective states for appropriate dispensation to properly identified and documented vulnerable children.
“Our party therefore urges President Buhari to take urgent steps to end the corruption that has pervaded his administration, particularly the use of innocent Nigerians as cover to steal public funds,” the statement further read.