Garba Shehu, presidential
spokesman, says the petition the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) sent to the
United Nations is beyond comprehension.
In a letter signed by Uche
Secondus, PDP national chairman, the party alleged the All Progressives Congress
(APC) administration is clamping down on the opposition.
It also accused the federal
government of “thoughtless abuse of human rights” and a “predetermined plan by
President Muhammadu Buhari to truncate Nigeria’s democracy”.
In a statement, Shehu said the
PDP wrote the letter, which he described as “preposterous and comical”, out of desperation.
He added that the allegation that
President Muhammadu Buhari is behind the herdsmen and farmer clashes is
“embarrassing”, asking what the president stands to gain from the continuous
killings.
“What can President Buhari
possibly gain from the killings?” he asked.
“There is no intelligent angle
from which you analyse the matter and see any possible gain for this government
in the wanton destruction of life and property going on. The various lengths to
which President Buhari has gone to end the spate of killings, such as
mobilising state resources against the attackers, approving the setting up of
new police and army formations in the affected areas, and the recruitment of
thousands into the police and other arms of the military, are a few of the
several steps taken which a more reasonable opposition will acknowledge.
“For the “new” PDP leadership on
the other hand, incapable of thinking big about the nation, they see and treat
the unfortunate spate of killing of innocent Nigerians as political gift, about
which they seem very happy to cite as the basis for a return to power.
“They feel bad at every turn the
country improves, which is beyond comprehension. They should bury their heads
in shame.”
Shehu also asked how the lecture
of democracy is coming from a party “with intolerance for dissent as its
hallmark”.
He asked Secondus not to mislead
the UN, saying the anti-corruption war should not be misinterpreted as an
attack on human rights.
“PDP’s lecture on democracy and
the rule of law, coming from a party with a tradition of undemocratic rule, is
a desperate attempt to pervert history and the course of justice,” he said.
“The sermon, is both trite and
hollow, coming from a party with intolerance for dissent as its hallmark. A
party that humiliated opposition parties and stunted their growth. This was the
atmosphere that nurtured the birth of the All Progressives Congress (APC.)
“The war against corruption, for
which many more politicians may soon be docked, cannot be misrepresented as an
attack on human rights and Mr Secondus should not try to mislead the UN.
“Nigerian politicians at all
levels have been used to dispensing with state funds in whatever manner they
please, and to have someone, an administration, finally saying, ‘No. It doesn’t
matter how big or important you think you are; the law must come against you…’
That is not something they are used to at all. For the PDP, as has now emerged,
national security was the major source of their funding.
“The PDP chairman and all other
politicians against whom the country’s anti-corruption agencies have on-going
investigations should be assured that it is only a matter of time before the
law catches up with them, and make them pay for the grief their mismanagement
of the past has caused, and is still causing Nigerians. Nigerians suffered
because of the poison sowed by the PDP.
“If the public were privy to some
of the facts and figures on corruption that President Buhari and the
anti-corruption agencies have, they would understand the passion that drives
the determination to nail these callous men and stop them in their corrupt
tracks.”
Good response. PDP should be careful with their actions .I doubt they will be able to win 2019 if they keep making such remarks and if they fail to present a credible presidential candidate
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