The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said the Peoples Democratic Party is now rebranding itself with the stolen money that was originally meant to fight Boko Haram.
Mohammed, in an interview, was reacting to the criticism of the approval of State Governors that $1 billion should be released to the Federal Government to fight the Boko Haram insurgency.
The governors gave the approval on Thursday during the National Economic Council meeting.
It was presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
The Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, on Friday distanced himself from the approval.
Fayose said the money was meant to fund the re-election campaign of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
Reacting to the position of the PDP on Friday in the interview, Mohammed said the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan “in one day distributed $269 million cash and N100 billion which was supposed to be money meant to fight Boko Haram”.
He said: “The sad thing about PDP is that they do not know when not to talk.
“If they were smart, they would know when not to talk.
“If not for their rapacious corruption, Boko Haram would not have metamorphosed into the monster that it became before we came in.
“If only they had approached governance with honesty, transparency and sense of purpose, Boko Haram would not have raged between 2009 and 2015.
“It was their inept handling of Boko Haram and their corruption that put us in this mess.
“They seem not to understand that the biggest challenge to any government and the primary responsibility of any government is law and order and security.
“It is because of the fact that we have been able to contain Boko Haram that they were able to hold their National Convention in Abuja.
“During their time, they were not able to celebrate the National Day openly.
“Under their watch, Boko Haram not only occupied 27 local governments in Borno State, but was also active in almost 10 states.
“Not that alone, they used to stroll to the federal capital, and three times they went to bomb the United Nations, the Police headquarters and under their watch, the Thisday newspaper was bombed and under their watch, about 200 Chibok girls were abducted.”
