APC : To Jonathan, You are Shielding Oduah

As uproar continues in the aviation sector over the $1.6m cars scandal, The All Progressive Congress (APC) has voiced out their discontent on the way the President is handling the Issue, adding that the Goodluck Jonathan administration may end up as the most corrupt in Nigeria’s history. The party, in its first official reaction to the N255m bulletproof car scandal involving the Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah,
said it was appalled at the manner Jonathan was handling the matter. “We now understand why corruption has grown wings under the Jonathan Presidency, and why the administration may well go down as the most corrupt in the country’s history,” it said in a statement by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Sunday. The statement was made available to journalists just as the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority said it had no documents relating to the purchase of the controversial cars. The APC said it reached its conclusion on the Jonathan Presidency after juxtaposing the evidence that had so far come out of the car scandal with the actions so far taken by the President. It pointed out that the handling of the scandal was a test case for the Jonathan government’s anti-corruption war. The statement warned that Jonathan might be considered an accessory to the scandal if he continued to shield Oduah from facing the consequences of her alleged indiscretion. The statement reads in part,“It has now emerged that the money spent on the cars was not appropriated, which is a violation of the Nigerian constitution; that due process was not followed in buying the cars, as the Bureau of Public Procurement has testified, and that the minister, who was said to have approved the purchase , violated the law by approving an expenditure over the N100m limit. “These revelations make the Oduahgate a straightforward case that should have been summarily dealt with by the President. Instead, he has engaged himself in rigmarole by setting up a diversionary administrative panel in what is now looking like an orchestrated ploy to buy time, hoping this issue will die down and the minister will escape being sanctioned. “Unfortunately for Mr. President, Oduahgate is not just another scandal, but a referendum on his administration’s fight against corruption, and on the legacy he intends to leave in this critical area.” APC also accused Jonathan of “thumbing his nose at Nigerians,” who have expressed outrage at the action of the minister, by approving her trip to travel to Israel as part of his entourage.