THE All Progressives Congress has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to pay attention to the Federal Ministry of Education in his bid to recover Nigeria’s looted funds.
The Rivers State Chairman of the APC, Dr. Davies Ikanya, who made this call in a statement issued in Port Harcourt on Sunday, said President Buhari should investigate the years of the former Supervisory Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Ikanya specifically drew the attention of the President to an allegation that N20bn was released for the purchase of books for Federal Government institutions, adding that such books were never provided.
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According to the state APC chairman, other areas President Buhari should look include the Almajiri School Scheme, the Universal Basic Education, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund and the N87bn approved for the ministry but not utilised.
“The whereabouts of the 15 UBEC Toyota Hilux buses that Chief Wike commandeered for his governorship election campaign, which he has refused to return to the Federal Ministry of Education, thereby hampering official activities in the Commission;
“The over N180bn UBEC funds allegedly looted by Chief Wike and Dame Patience Jonathan, through fraudulent contracts for the supply of textbooks to higher institutions. (The textbooks were never supplied);
“The recent fire that razed down only the Basic Education Section of the Federal Ministry of Education building in Abuja containing relevant indicting documents about Wike’s activities while he held sway as the Supervising Minister of Education.
“We should unravel why the fire incident took place and why only this section was burnt. Was it for the sole purpose of covering up the illegal transactions of the immediate past Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike?
“The burnt documents included the ones for the contracts Wike awarded to himself and his cronies as a conduit to siphon public funds. We want the Buhari administration to, as a matter of urgency, look into this now that he wants to recover looted funds.”
He, however, pointed out that the move by the President to recover the funds looted from the country’s coffers was laudable and a welcome development.
Ikanya explained that the impending recovery of looted funds in the country would be the beginning of the journey towards building an ideal nation.
“The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has thrown its weight behind President Muhammadu Buhari in his bid to investigate and recover the billions of naira looted by the immediate past administration of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
“We received with great joy news of the resolution by President Buhari to go after those who stole Nigeria blind and virtually grounded the country’s economy. For six years, we shouted ourselves hoarse that Jonathan’s administration was the most corrupt in the history of this nation, and sadly nobody believed us.
“But the recent revelations have proved us right. If not by the grace of God and the resolve of Nigerians to vote out that visionless government, the ship of our nation would have been grounded by now,” the state APC chairman said.
However, efforts made to get the reaction of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Sir Opunapo Inko-Tariah, to react to the allegations against his boss were futile, as several calls and a text message to his mobile phone did not yield any response.
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