PDP Wants Buhari, 2 Ministers Removed From Office Over Missing Budget, Naira Crash

Nigeria’s main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic
Party, has asked the National Assembly to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari,
over the budget scandal rocking the National Assembly. The party also demanded
the resignation of two ministers, and the central bank governor.

The Senate on Thursday accused ‎a senior special assistant
to President Buhari, Ita Enang, of presenting to lawmakers an altered version
of the 2016 budget.

At its plenary on Thursday, the Senate said Mr. Enang, a
former senator and now Mr. Buhari’s assistant on National Assembly, changed the
contents of the original document as presented by Mr. Buhari.

The senate president, Bukola Saraki, said, “What he distributed
is different from what was presented by Mr. President and we have resolved not
to address any version until we receive the version presented by Mr.
President”.

The PDP said in a statement signed by its acting national
chairman, Uche Secondus, that its National Working Committee “rose from a
meeting Thursday charging the National Assembly to commence impeachment of
President Muhammadu Buhari for the various constitutional breaches especially
the submission of two version of the 2016 budget”.

The party said the National Assembly should thoroughly
investigate the “shameful act, including the distortion and banding of figures
to accommodate their personal interest and ensure that appropriate sanctions is
meted to whoever has a hand in the dubious action that has brought
embarrassment to the legislative body”.

The party also asked the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun,
and Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, to resign “having
failed to provide the much needed capacity in the management of the nation’s
economy resulting in the embarrassing crashing of the nation’s currency to as
low as N305 to a dollar”.

Also, the party asked the Governor of Central Bank of
Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, to resign “for plunging the country’s currency policy
into chaos an action that thrown investors into total confusion”.

“We sympathizes with Nigerians who are seriously undergoing
terrible hardship because of the now obvious inept leadership of APC despite
the promise of one Naira to a dollar.

“What hope can a government that allows its currency to
break a 43 year old record crashing to over N300 to one dollar offer and yet
does not show it has clear focus of what to do,” the party said.

The party said that “APC government rather than address very
grievous national issues created by its lack of capacity to govern has instead
resorted to violation of peoples rights in the name of fighting corruption”.

Premium Times