Return home to face security challenges, PDP tells Buhari

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to end his “private visit” abroad and immediately return home to face the deteriorated security situation in the country.

The party said it is completely unacceptable for President Buhari to practically abandon his responsibilities, as the Commander-In-Chief to pursue unexplained private matters in foreign lands, while bandits, marauders and insurgents seize the nation; maiming, kidnapping and killing innocent citizens with reckless abandon.

A statement on Thursday by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the President’s inattention has emboldened insurgents and bandits to continue to over-run communities, unleash mayhem and bloodletting on citizens in Borno, Zamfara, Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe Taraba, Kaduna, Benue, Kogi and other states of the federation, including Mr. President’s home state, Katsina.

The statement said, While President Buhari wanders abroad, bandits are having a field day, pillaging communities in Katsina state; killing several persons and abducting the District Head of his hometown, Daura, Musa Umar; the father in-law of Mr. President’s security aide.

“Within this period, marauders invaded communities in Adamawa and killed no fewer that 26 innocent Nigerians; many more have been killed in Borno, Taraba, Benue and Zamfara states, where bandits also reportedly attacked Government Girls Secondary School Moriki, and kidnapped some school girls.

“While the Buhari administration remains virtually nonchalant, kidnappers have taken over many of our major highways, with hundreds of compatriots held in captivity in forests along Kaduna-Abuja, Taraba-Katsina-Ala and other highways in the country.

“It is clear that President Buhari has not demonstrated required capacity to control the security situation and now resorts to cheap escapism, particularly in the face of allegations in the public space that certain individuals around his administration are benefitting from the situation.

“This is in addition to allegations that some of the bandits arrested, in states such as Katsina, are not Nigerians but aliens allegedly imported by the All Progressives Congress (APC) from Niger Republic to assist it in unleashing violence and rigging the 2019 general elections”.

Urging the police to investigate the foreign link with the insecurity in the country, the main opposition party said the President has completely failed our nation.

It added that President Buhari’s perceived dereliction to duty was a clear signal that he has been practically overwhelmed, deflated and has nothing to offer.

“The situation in Nigeria today signposts the terrible condition our nation will face if the presidential mandate is not retrieved at the tribunal to enable competent and uncompromised hands to run the affairs of our country.

“The PDP therefore calls on President Buhari to immediately return home and use the remaining part of his tenure to seek help instead of wandering abroad under the guise of private visits”, the PDP said.