The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described President Muhammadu Buhari’s resort to religious colouration and classification of wanton killings in the country by insurgents as totally horrendous, unpresidential, scandalous, discriminatory, divisive and a huge spat on the grave of the victims.
The party, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, described as highly insensitive the attempt by the President to rationalise the failure of his administration to end insurgency by saying that 90 per cent of those killed by terrorists are members of a particular religion.
PDP said as a pan-Nigerian political party, it held without any equivocation, that the killing of any compatriot, anywhere by terrorists or bandits, irrespective of religion, ethnicity or class, could never be rationalised under any guise whatsoever.
The party added that the President’s disturbing statement showed that the Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) attached no value to the lives of Nigerians as well as further exposed their manifest lack of capacity and commitment to effectively tackle the worsened security situation under the federal government’s watch.
“Our party holds that for President Buhari, a Commander-in-Chief, who promised to fight from the fronts and now holds all the paraphernalia of power; and on whose shoulders the security of the nation rests, to make such a statement leaves no one in doubt that the Buhari Presidency has reached its wits end, exhausted its propaganda and has no solutions to offer.
“It is instructive for the Buhari Presidency to note that rather than engaging in lame attempt at rationalising failure, the expectation of Nigerians is for it to take decisive steps, track down and vanquish terrorists, who resurged in our country after Mr. President took over as Commander-in-Chief,” PDP said.
More distressing, the opposition party said the President’s divisive comment was coming at a time when all well-meaning Nigerians, irrespective of religion, partisan and sectional interests, were rallying together following calls by patriotic individuals and groups, particularly the PDP, to find solution for the worsened security challenges under the APC administration
President Buhari and the APC, PDP said, should know that every life is precious, irrespective of religion, and that this obnoxious body count as rationalisation for failure is completely unacceptable.
The statement noted that with such dismal attitude, Nigerians have lost all confidence in the commitment of the APC administration to find solution to security challenges under its watch.
The party counselled the President to immediately apologise for his comments, accept failure, re-jig his security high command and engage more competent hands to effectively tackle the security challenges.
“What Nigerians want to hear from President Buhari is the apprehension and prosecution of perpetrators of mass killings in Benue, Plateau, Kogi, Niger, Yobe, Adamawa, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina and other states of the nation where communities where pillaged under his watch,” the party said.
PDP urged Nigerians not to allow such statements to deter and divide their emerging common front against acts of terrorism and violence in our country.
NAN