The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has warned that the Federal Government’s current abuse of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), set up in the wake of last year’s partial removal of fuel subsidy, amounts to a gross violation of the country’s constitution and constitutes an impeachable offence.

National publicity secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said yesterday in a statement that the PDP-controlled Federal Government is now using part of the funds accruing to the programme to empower the party’s cronies ahead of the 2015 elections, instead of using it for the benefit of all Nigerians.

“Ordinarily, SURE-P seems laudable as it is aimed at the empowerment of the citizens through job creation and infrastructure development, but in reality, PDP apparatchiks have hijacked it for the purpose of empowering only the party’s members. They have created State Implementation Committees (SICs) to handle the disbursement of SURE-P cash to party members as a strategy to arm them with a war chest ahead of the 2015 elections. To make matters worse, the PDP is denigrating the traditional institution by using traditional rulers in some states as the conduit to distribute SURE-P funds, ostensibly to empower Nigerians but in reality to put money in the pockets of PDP supporters,” he said.

The party advised SURE-P’s head, Dr Christopher Kolade, not to allow the skewed and partisan implementation of the programme by the FG to tarnish his hard-earned reputation.