Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has blamed the deteriorating state of insecurity in the country, especially kidnapping and banditry on thugs allegedly smuggled into the country by the All Progressives Congress (APC) with which it unleashed violence to facilitate its rigging of the 2019 general election.
To this end, the main opposition party has called on the Nigerian Army and other security agencies to track down the political mercenaries unleashing mayhem on the country and its citizens.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement issued yesterday, restated the party’s demand for an investigation into the alleged link between the APC and the ugly security situation in the country.
According to him, “This is particularly as the APC is now overweighed by public disapproval and opprobrium for rigging the election; and being faced with huge legitimacy challenges ahead, can resort to all manner of shenanigans just to divert public attention from its odious status.”
Ologbondiyan said it was instructive to note that the APC had not been able to state the whereabouts of these thugs after the elections, a development that has raised fears that they had filtered deeper into the country’s national territory and population, given the escalation of banditry and associated acts of violence in many of our states, including Zamfara, Borno, Yobe, Taraba, Kaduna, Katsina states, among others, since after the elections.
The party therefore urged the security agencies to compel the APC to immediately disclose the identity and whereabouts of the mercenaries and their traffickers to enable the security agencies urgently flush the mercenaries out and shield the nation and the country’s democracy from further security threats.
Ologbondiyan stated: “Nigerians can recall that the PDP had raised the alarm when the APC, seeing that it cannot win in a free, fair and credible election, compromised our territorial borders to bring in political mercenaries from other countries to participate in their campaign rallies, as well as assist them in perpetuating violence.
“Nigerians can also recall how APC agents unbridled violence on voters in Kano, Kaduna, Rivers, Kogi, Taraba, Adamawa and other states of the federation to muscle votes for its candidates, particularly in the presidential election; and how the APC leadership stood in staunch defence of the compromising of our territorial borders as well as the violence that characterised the elections.
“This was in addition to apprehensions of possible plots by the APC to use the thugs to cause confusion and derail our democratic process, should they fail to rig the elections.”
He said that the PDP, as a law-abiding party, committed to the unity, stability and sovereignty of the nation, as well as the deepening of democratic process stands with Nigerians in their refusal to be distracted by the APC in the determination to get justice for the country at the tribunals.
