- Berates presidency for politicizing security issues
By Ishaya Ibrahim
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday called on the National Assembly to open an inquest into the report by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) which alleged that military authorities had secretly buried over 1,000 Nigerian soldiers, allegedly killed in the anti-insurgency war in the Northeast.
The party urged the National Assembly to respond to the
apprehension of Nigerians by setting up a special security
committee to conduct a forensic investigation into the veracity or
otherwise of the report.
PDP’s said its position was “predicated on the brazen attempt by the Buhari Presidency to politicize such huge security issue and making
uncomplimentary allusions to the plight of our troops, in yet another
unpatriotic and insensitive press release on the state of our nation.”
A statement by Kola Ologbondiyan, national publicity secretary, said it was “unfortunate that at this time when patriotic Nigerians are distressed about the wellbeing of our gallant soldiers and seeking for solutions to the challenges they face in the front, the Buhari Presidency is rather issuing press statements, just like the one it released on Friday, August 2, 2019, wherein it leveraged on the plight of our soldiers to boast on how to retain a stolen presidential mandate.”
The statement read in part: “Instead of showing concern over the fate of our troops, taking concrete steps on the issue at stake and reassuring an anxious nation, the Buhari Presidency is rather seeking to draw political capital from our security challenges by flaunting a despicable self-confidence on the Presidential election petition pending in the Court of Appeal, and how, in its own words, “the judiciary would always come to conclusions”.
“It is imperative to state that such comments send very wrong signal against our judiciary and we urge the judiciary arm to insulate herself from the nocturnal shenenanigans of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the cabal at the Presidency, which have gone into frenzy following the apparent collapse of their defence at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.
“While the Buhari Presidency, has with its latest stance on such grave security issue, further exhibited that it has come short of appropriate solutions to the security challenges facing our nation, the PDP states that waving off of such without the least effort to unravel the issues and reassure Nigerians, shows total failure of leadership.
“The PDP holds that President Buhari has again failed to demonstrate that
he has the capacity and commitment to ensure the security of our nation.
“Our party thus stands solidly behind the people’s candidate, Atiku
Abubakar, in his patriotic concerns over the report. Only a leader, who
lacks genuine concern for his people, will gloat over such a report, as
being witnessed under the Buhari administration.”
