Buhari’s Visit To States Affected By Killings Political, Says PDP

 

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent visit to states that have come under attacks by herdsmen, as insincere and political.

PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement on Thursday said the President’s motive was to score political points and described it “iniquitous”.

President Buhari’s visit to Yobe State on Wednesday followed visits to Taraba and Benue. Apart from the three states, the President will visit Zamfara and Rivers State all of which have witnessed killings linked to herdsmen.

The PDP, however, believes the visits – starting with Taraba on March 5 – were not out of genuine concern for the victims.

“The comments by the President as well as his aloofness to the people in the troubled states, so far visited, have all confirmed that the belated visits were mere afterthoughts orchestrated for political reasons and not out of any genuine concern for the victims,” it said.

The opposition party is also unhappy with the comments the President made in Yobe about the past administration.

While addressing parents of the schoolgirls who were abducted from Government Girls Science Technical College (GGSTC) in Yobe State, President Buhari rated his administration’s response to the reported kidnap of the pupils better than that of the previous government.

He accused Jonathan’s administration of treating the abduction of Chibok schoolgirls in 2014 with kids gloves.

But the PDP said the action appeared “pregnant with meaning”.

“The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described as iniquitous, the attempt by President Muhammadu Buhari to use the heartbreaking abduction of innocent schoolgirls in Dapchi, Yobe state, to score cheap political points,” the statement by  Ologbondiyan read in part.

“The President’s morbid comparison of the Dapchi incident to a similar heartrending abduction of schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno state, in 2014, appears pregnant with meaning, especially in the face of pervading speculations and conspiracy theorems that trailed the Dapchi abduction and its associated conflicting reports.”