The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday said it cannot commend President Muhammadu Buhari for the rescue of the abducted students of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara in Katsina State because it believed that the incident shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
While reacting to the claim by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that the PDP should have commended the swift response of the President which led to the quick release of the boys, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP’s national publicity secretary said the failure of the Buhari administration to fulfill its promise of securing the nation led to the incident.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Daily Independent, Ologbondiyan said the incident may not have occurred if the President had listened to clarion calls by concerned Nigerians, including the National Assembly and the PDP asking him to rejig the security architecture of the country a log time ago.
He said:
“Whoever made that statement that we should commend the President must be hallucinating. It is clear that it was as a result of the failure of the Buhari administration, particularly on the issue of security that has brought our nation to this sorry state. Don’t forget that security of the country is one of the three cardinal programmes of the Buhari administration and in 2019 during the campaign; he promised to take it to the next level”.
“The PDP as well as other eminent Nigerians, including the National Assembly have been telling Mr. President that he should rejig the security architecture by replacing the Service Chiefs. Rather than listen the voice of the people whom he promised to defend, he bluntly refused to listen to the voice of wisdom”.
“What happened in Kankara was not the first time students in their large numbers will be kidnapped under the Buhari administration. It happened in Dapchi and now just two days after the Kankara boys were rescued, another kidnapping has also taken place in Katsina. Don’t forget that the President is presently on vacation in Katsina where these two kidnappings took place”.
“We are talking of a President who promised to lead the battle against insurgents from the front. We are talking of a President who has had the opportunity of leading our nation as a military Head of State; A president who retired from military service as General but today, he has brought our nation to her knees before bandits, insurgents and terrorists”.
“So, it is surprising why anybody will condemn the PDP for not praising his efforts in rescuing the boys. Which efforts are they talking about? For us in the PDP, the abduction shouldn’t have taken place in the first instance”.
“We consider that assertion as mere hallucination and we have no cause to sing President Buhari’s praises for plunging Nigeria into this sorry state” he said.
