It’s insensitive for Buhari to launch campaign without visiting Zamfara - Secondus

The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prince Uche Secondus, said in Abuja on Friday that it was wrong for President Muhammadu Buhari to launch his second-term bid when he had yet to visit Zamfara State where hundreds of people were killed by bandits.

Secondus said the people of Zamafara State and Nigerians were expecting the President to put politics aside and find solutions to what he called “unmitigated killings in the state” and some parts of northern Nigeria.

He likened the actions of the President and that of the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress to “dancing on the graves of innocent Nigerians who elected him in 2015 and have now been killed by bandits because the government they elected refused to protect them.”

He added, “It is sad watching the President speak today (Friday) in Akwa Ibom State, when the people of Zamfara State and other states, especially from the North-West and North-Central, even in the North-East, are crying for help.


“These are people who lined up in the sun about four years ago, thinking that President Buhari would be a father to them all.

“Now they cannot go to their farms and their homes had been taken over by bandits. Yet, their father, the President, was busy dancing and giving out fake promises again.”

Reacting to the APC rally, the Peoples Democratic Party on Friday accused the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress of secretly drawing over N478m from the coffers of the Niger Delta Development Commission to rent a crowd and offset bills for President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election campaign rally in Uyo.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement also accused Buhari of directly appointing serving ministers and heads of government agencies as members of his campaign council in order to use them for the diversion of public funds to finance his 2019 campaign.

Ologbondiyan, who is also the Director, Media and Publicity, PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, said the party was also aware of protests by some eminent Nigerians, including foremost businessmen, who were named as members of the APC Campaign Council without their consent.

Ologbondiyan said, “The N478m NDDC fund which was originally budgeted for development projects in the Niger Delta was diverted to renting and transportation of crowd from other parts of the country to the rally to create an impression of popularity for President Buhari in the region.

“Further information at our party’s disposal, shows that the said N478m is part of the wholesome N1.2bn allegedly siphoned in tranches from the NDDC treasury by the cabal at the Buhari Presidency and the APC leaders, who have been stealing money from various government agencies to finance President Buhari’s campaign.

“Our party also has it on good authority that this ignoble scheme of siphoning the NDDC development fund to finance his campaign was the main reason President Buhari foisted an unpopular leadership on the management of the NDDC despite the protests by critical stakeholders in all the states of the Niger Delta.

Ologbondiyan added, “Moreover, the PPCO invites Nigerians to note that unlike the PDP Presidential campaign council, which has credible Nigerians as members, most of Buhari’s zonal coordinators are persons facing corruption cases.

“This casts a very long shadow on President Buhari’s integrity and further confirms that his fight against corruption is a sham.

“The PPCO reminds President Buhari that Nigerians are still awaiting his explanation on the seething revelation of corrupt acquisition of Etisalat Nigeria and Keystone Bank PLC by his family members under the cover of his presidency; an issue that Nigerians are not willing to let go until he clears his name.”

Meanwhile, the Buhari Media Organisation has said the alleged lies and falsehood launched against President Muhammadu Buhari and members of his family by Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, will not would not succeed.

The group in a statement signed by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju;  and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, noted that the Atiku campaign had recently embarked on a lying spree aimed at damaging the character of the President in the bid to bring him to the same moral pedestal as Atiku.

“The new campaign by Atiku and his party to throw falsehood in the air, aimed at attacking President Buhari’s character, is a failed mission. President Buhari has maintained an unassailable integrity throughout his public life; the same cannot be said of Atiku whose former boss has described him as a man that cannot be trusted.

“The PDP want to place President Buhari and Atiku as if they are the same on the issue of integrity; hence the recent launch of fake news stories claiming the President and members of his family own properties and shares even where there is no iota of evidence to prove their points.

“The only thing Atiku shares in common with President Buhari is their age group; asides that, Atiku cannot stand anywhere close to President Buhari, not even on the matter of integrity.”

The group alleged that the claims by Buba Galadima that the President and members of his family owned properties and were now billionaires were a concocted story by a frustrated old man who lost his friendship with President Buhari due to his corrupt and morally deficient lifestyle.