N31 Billion Fraud: Buhari’s presidency, a sanctuary for looters__ PDP claims

The Peoples Democratic Party has described the government of President Muhammadu Buhari as a criminal and fraud friendly one, following the declaration of the president’s son-in-law wanted over an N31 billion fraud.

A former managing director of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, Gimba Yau Kumo who in 2016 married Mr Buhari’s second daughter Fatima, Mr Tarry Rufus and Mr Bola Ogunsola, were declared wanted over misappropriation and diversion of $65 million National Housing fund.

Although, the presidency denied that Mr Kumo President Buhari’s son-in-law, says he had in the past been “linked” to “a family member in marriage” which “ended some years ago.”

However, Kola Ologbodiyan, PDP’s spokesperson in a statement on Friday said, Mr Kumo’s involvement in fraud “further confirms that the Buhari Presidency is indeed a sanctuary for fraudsters, treasury looters and common criminals.”

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“It speaks volumes that the Buhari Presidency had remained silent in the face of this huge fraud involving Mr President’s son-in-law; a beneficiary of the primitive family patronage in the Buhari administration, only for certain members of the cabal to be reportedly mounting pressure on the ICPC to let him off the hook,” the statement read in part.

Though Mr Buhari campaigned on riding Nigerian public service of corruption, saying Nigeria must kill corruption before it kills Nigerians, his allies have been fingered in different corruption saga.

In January, Transparency International in its 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) reported that Nigeria’s ratings plunged to 149 on a categorised scale for “highly corrupt” countries — three places down from its 146th position in 2019.