Oyegun: When Dasuki Was Sharing Money, He Didn’t Invite Any APC Member

When Dasuki was sharing money from his ATM,
he didn’t invite any APC member
The ruling party, All Progressives Congress says the anti-
corruption war of the Muhammadu Buhari’s government is
neither selective nor partisan.
John Odigie-Oyegun, chairman of the APC, reiterated this
claim in an interview with The Punch, where he noted that
Peoples Democratic Party chieftains are being investigated
because most of them received funds from Sambo Dasuki,
former national security adviser.
He said that when the former NSA was sharing money
“from his ATM machine”, he didn’t extend an invitation to
members of the opposition party.
Dasuki, who has been in custody since 2015, is being
investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) over the alleged diversion of funds
meant to fight the Boko Haram insurgency.
“Prosecution depends on evidence. Once there is evidence,
if anyone has evidence, let him provide it. This generalised
rumour is not basis for serious action of that type. And in
any case, there are a few APC leaders who are being called
to question. It is not as one sided as it seems and it is not
something to be apologetic for”, Oyegun said.
“When the then National Security Adviser was disbursing
funds from his Automated Teller Machine, he did not call an
opposition person to say take money. So, it’s a natural
course of events. This administration- if anybody can read;
the President will not mind whose ox is gored so long as
justice is done. It just happens that as at now, those
whose hands are found in the till happen to be
preponderantly in the PDP. But you can see that a lot of
other investigations are ongoing and quite a few involve
some APC leaders.”
Oyegun also said the ruling party is not interested in an
opposition that is enmeshed in crisis, insisting that the
APC is not in any way responsible for the internal strife in
the PDP.
“All I can say is that they cannot eat their cake and have
it. When their factional chairman left us, they were
celebrating, they were happy saying oh, we’ve got a big
fish. Now that they see the kind of man he is, they are
crying wolf. We have nothing to do with the travails of the
PDP because in reality; we want a virile opposition. We
want an opposition that is responsible, that has ideas to
contribute.
“They have failed to do this so far. So, it is not of any
value to us that they are heating up and that they are
losing the little bit of the sense of direction they had left.
They are just looking for a scape goat. We have absolutely
no interest in what is going on in the PDP. If you recall, we
once urged their members who were trooping into the APC
-as soon as we won the election- to remain in their party
to give us the kind of opposition that will strengthen our
democracy.
“This shows we mean well for them. We asked them to go
and re-engineer themselves and be as we were- a
responsible opposition party. I just pray for them and hope
that they will be able to rediscover themselves, to be able
to start the process of rebuilding themselves. Maybe, it is
even good that what is happening is happening, because it
will give us the time to take the tough decisions that the
country which they ruined requires.”
The APC chieftain further stressed that the federal
government isn’t investigating the campaign finds
expended by the PDP, but rather, public funds that were
pumped into the 2015 election.
Oyegun said individual donors, businesses and companies
who contributed the election campaign of the PDP aren’t
under investigation.
“That is not the issue. There is a great misunderstanding.
We are not investigating PDP campaign funds. We are
investigating records as to how public funds were hijacked
for illegal purposes which were not budgeted for by the
National Assembly. Nobody in business who contributed a
lot of money has been dragged to any tribunal because he
gave PDP funds.
“Public funds, public resources, money that belongs to you,
me and the people of this country were stolen and
diverted. Crude oil was being illegally sold to fund the
campaigns and other political activities. Not just the
campaigns, people just shared money and pocketed.
“It’s not company XYZ limited giving PDP X amount and
about being dragged before EFCC, that is not what is going
on. Anybody who steals from the treasury either to fund
campaign, or to put in his pocket or to buy an estate in
every part of the world would be asked questions. It must
not be allowed. Nobody must be allowed to get away with
that. It is not the same with campaign funding. We are not
investigating PDP campaign funds.”