A former Deputy Chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC) Dr. Abubakar Olanrewaju Sulaiman, has stated that President Muhammadu Buhari lied for claiming that he inherited an ‘empty treasury’ from the immediate past administration.

Suleiman, who was a federal minister disclosed that the former administration under the leadership of Goodluck Jonathan left behind the sum of US$30billion. The ex-minister strongly warned the Buhari government against accusing Jonathan of milking the nation’s treasury dry.

Suleiman was reacting to a statement credited to President during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja, where he was quoted as saying that his government met “virtually an empty treasury.”

In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, Sulieman described the claim as “unscientific and unfair”, noting that the immediate past administration “left behind close to US$30billion.”

He said, “Government can’t tell us that there is no Excess Crude Account (ECA), Sovereign Wealth Fund(SWF) or are we saying the Federal Inland Revenue Service(FIR) and related agencies had not in the last one month been generating revenue?

“Until they are able to prove they had no receipts from these government agencies in the last one month before Nigerians can now buy into Mr. President’s claims of an empty treasury.”

Read More: dailypost