The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has asked Yemi Osinbajo to explain the N5.8 billion National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) saga for which he was allegedly accused by an investigative committee of the House of Representatives.

PDP also told the Presidency to instantly prosecute the sacked Director-General of NEMA, Engr. Mustapha Yunusa Maihaja, who has been indicted by the House of Representatives over alleged embezzlement of N33 billion in the agency.

According to PDP spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, Osinbajo has to react because the opposition party and Nigerians will not accept the unpardonable pat in the wrist of allowing Engr. Maihaja to leave office without proper investigation.

He added that PDP believes that failing to prosecute the ex NEMA Director-General means the All Progressives Congress is all about protecting top officials in their party who steal funds meant to serve the people.

His words, “The party notes that the Vice President had failed to provide cogent response to the report of the House of Representatives on the N33 billion NEMA fraud in addition to allegations that the N5.8 billion was withdrawn from the national coffers, while he was acting President, without legislative consent and expended without recourse to extant due process, procurement and contract rules.

“The PDP insists that the sacking of Engr Maihaja should not be used as an excuse to foreclose an investigation into the huge fraud in NEMA under Vice President Osinbajo as Chairman of Governing Board.

“The PDP stands with Nigerians in rejecting this unpardonable pat in the wrist of allowing Engr. Maihaja to leave office without investigation and prosecution to recover the allegedly embezzled fund.

“Our party believes that the failure to prosecute the indicted former NEMA Director-General as a ploy to shield very top officials in the All Progressives Congress, a pct odd administration, who are alleged to be involved in the series of scam in NEMA, while the masses, for whom the fund was meant to serve, continue to suffer neglect and untold hardships.

“The party describes the sleaze in NEMA as an indelible smear on the Buhari Presidency and charges the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to immediately take in Engr. Maihaja for questioning and if found wanting, prosecuted.

“The PDP recalled that the House of Representatives had exposed that while the fund was claimed to have been expended for procurement of grains under the emergency intervention on food security in the North East, none of the six states of the North-East received any grain from the so-called emergency intervention by NEMA.

“The legislative house had also exposed that there was no evidence that the World Food Programme, WFP, received the 5,000 metric tons of rice, which NEMA claimed to have bought and donated to WFP for distribution to victims of insurgency in the region.

“Indeed, the failure of the Buhari Presidency to prosecute Engr. Maihaja, despite his indictment by the House of Representatives, had raised serious issues of alleged complicity in high places, for which Nigerians expect Prof. Osinbajo, as Chairman of Governing Board of the agency, to come clean.

“It is even more saddening that the looted fund is part of the money set aside for emergency response such as provision of palliatives and other essentials for the poor masses to mitigate the hardships that would be occasioned by emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic.”