Stop lying, Jonathan left $5.6bn as NLNG dividend – PDP blasts APC

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has slammed Nigeria’s ruling the party, the All Progressives Congress for insinuating that the past administration hid the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) dividends from Nigerians.

In a statement signed by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh on Sunday in Abuja the main opposition party stated that none of its successive led governments ever tampered with the NLNG dividends in the last 10 years.

Metuh noted said that the fund at the end of President Goodluck Jonathan tenure had risen to a cumulative 5.6 billion dollars. “It is imperative to note that by the end of the tenure of President Goodluck Jonathan, NLNG dividends had risen to a cumulative $5.6billion and not a single cent was ever taken from the funds,” the statement read.

PDP noted that its attention had been drawn to the “misleading and outright falsehood” by the APC on the issue. “The truth is that the NLNG had been on a 10-year tax haven until 2014.

“Within this period, successive governments, right from President Olusegun Obasanjo, never shared nor tampered with the cumulative dividends over the years.

“Whatever taxes paid from the NLNG go through the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) and recorded as part of the income of the Federal Government.

The statement said although it was within the rights of the APC administration to spend the funds in any way it might decide, it was, however, wrong for APC to try to insinuate that the past PDP-led governments had hidden the fund.