Politics
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has tasked the All Progressives Congress (APC) to respond to allegations by a mercenary, Eeben Barlow, suggesting that it was the election of President Muhammadu Buhari in 205 that stalled attempts to rescue the abducted Chibok girls.
Over 200 secondary school girls were abducted in Chibok, Borno State by Boko Haram insurgents on April 14, 2014 during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Jonathan had dithered and failed to act two weeks after the abduction of the girls.
However, some of the girls were rescued shortly after President Buhari mounted the leadership saddle.
But in a recent interview with Al Jazeera, Barlow, a mercenary, who claimed to have been hired by Jonathan to rescue the girls, had claimed that his efforts to rescue the girls were frustrated by the pending election of Buhari in 2015.
Barlow also alleged that the then United States government, under Mr Barack Obama, had instigated the termination of a contract awarded him by Jonathan for the rescue of the abducted school girls.
Based on Barlow’s accounts, as reported by a national newspaper, the PDP has accused the APC of being responsible for the escalated violence, insurgent attacks, bloodletting and worsened insecurity in the country.
But in a statement on Tuesday its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP challenged the APC to respond to Barlow’s reported allegation that its administration terminated the nation’s counter-insurgency operations.
The party also echoed Barlow’s claims that his botched rescue contract was to satisfy foreign interests, a development the PDP said, had resulted in escalated violent attacks and bloodletting in various parts of the country, particularly in the north.
“The APC should explain the assertion by international security expert, Eeben Barlow, who reportedly on international television, Aljazeera, told the world that our nation was successfully routing insurgents in the Northeast before the APC and its administration terminated the counter-insurgency operation to satisfy an alleged American interest that assisted it to manipulate its way to power.
“It is instructive to note that the APC had engaged in unwarranted attack on the PDP and Atiku Abubakar as well as sponsoring negative divisive publications in the last few days in the bid to divert public attention from this very grave issue.
“Nigerians can now see why insurgents, marauders and bandits, who had been pushed to the fringes under the PDP administration, suddenly resurged in renewed ravaging of communities and killing our compatriots unabated, while the APC and its administration engage in lip service and empty condolence messages,” the PDP said.
The main opposition party said the APC has been feeding fat and servicing its interests from the pains and anguish of suffering Nigerians who daily face the agony of economic repression, death and violent attacks.
It urged Nigerians to be wary of APC’s renewed attacks and baseless allegations against the PDP and its leaders, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, all in the failed bid to divert public attention from its atrocities against the country, including compromising security architecture for selfish purposes.
Continuing, the PDP said: “Nigerians are aware of how the APC imported political mercenaries, thugs and miscreants from neighboring countries, including Niger Republic and used them to unleash violence on Nigerians during the 2019 presidential elections.
“The APC has failed to account for these miscreants, most of who are now unleashing violence as kidnappers, armed robbers and marauders, pillaging our communities without restrain under the APC.
“It is important to observe that the APC had failed to apologise or join other well-meaning Nigerians in forcefully demanding for the arrest and prosecution of perpetrators of the mass killings in Benue, Borno, Plateau, Taraba, Kogi, Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Yobe, Adamawa, Ekiti, Ebonyi, Abia, Nasarawa, Niger and other parts of the country, under its watch.
“Only recently, Edo state Governor Godwin Obaseki accused the APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, of always relying on thugs for elections and Nigerians know the devastation thuggery and its associated violence had caused the nation in the last five years of the APC”.
The party further stated that instead of clinging on straws by attacking the PDP and Atiku Abubakar, the APC should account for or demand for investigation and prosecution of its leaders responsible for the alleged looting of over N14 trillion from federal coffers, including the alleged stealing of N9 trillion exposed by the leaked NNPC memo on oil subsidy theft.
It also charged the APC to account for the N1.1 trillion worth of crude oil, allegedly siphoned by its leaders using 18 unregistered vessels, and the alleged stealing of over N48 billion meant for the rehabilitation of victims of insurgency.
Similarly, the PDP challenged the ruling party to also account for the N33bn National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) saga in which a very top member of the Buhari administration was mentioned, as well as the alleged looting spree in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) under its watch. – The Nation
– Jan. 7, 2020 @ 18:55 GMT |
Tags: Chibok girls: PDP tasks APC on military contractor’s allegation
