The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday challenged Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to name corrupt members of the party and provide proof of his allegations against them.
National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, spoke in reaction to the claim by Vice President that the PDP-led government at the federal level destroyed Nigeria’s economy.
Professor Osinbajo made the claim while delivering a speech during a colloquium in honour of a national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Mr Bola Tinubu, in Lagos, earlier in the day.
“From all I have seen in government in the past few years, the corruption of the previous five years is what destroyed the Nigerian economy,” he said.
“Every time we talk, we as a party, and your government must show the difference between us and the party and government that impoverished our nation.”
READ MORE: Corruption Of Previous Years Destroyed Nigeria’s Economy – Osinbajo
The PDP National Publicity Secretary who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today, however, faulted the Vice President’s allegations.
He argued that as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Professor Osinbajo, ought to have substantiated his allegation by providing names.
Furthermore, Mr Ologbondiyan said the Buhari administration which the VP is a part of should have used the evidence it had, if it actually had any, to arrest and try the members of the PDP it said were corrupt.
“We challenge him to stop branding figures. He should mention names of those whom he claims corrupted themselves,” the PDP spokesperson said.
“If he cannot mention their names, and he cannot cause their arrest and he cannot even list these people, he should keep quiet,” he said.
Ologbondiyan further advised the Vice President to stop blaming the party for corruption over the years.
He said, “Our advice to the Vice President, as a professor of law, he knows the pathway to follow when you accuse somebody of corruption.
“It is not enough to come to the public arena, more so as a man of God, and begin to make an allegation about corruption always.”
Mr Ologbondiyan also reacted to the Vice President’s claim that the Goodluck Jonathan administration allocated just N99bn to three critical ministries – power, works and housing (they were separate ministries then) in 2014 when oil price range from between $100 and $114 per barrel.
According to him, the money in question was not released for the PDP’s use.
Mr Ologbondiyan added that rather than continue trying to drag the PDP’s name and those of its members in the mud, the APC-led Federal Government should tell Nigerians its achievements in the three years it has been in power.
